


A Cursed Rat and Some Monsters

by denzelfire



Series: A Cursed Rat [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Amnesia, Angst, Cursed, F/M, Fluff, Forced experimentation on reader in chapter 19, Humor, Other, Possible Rating Change, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader has a weird past, Reverse Harem, health code violations whoops, reader getting their body back is taking longer than expected, reader is scared/does not like the fell skeletons, reader is whatever gender you want them to be. they u, until you get your own body again its a lil weird, very slow burn, will add more AUs if asked, will add tags as needed, you are literally a rat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-07-02 23:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15806910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/denzelfire/pseuds/denzelfire
Summary: One day you woke up in a body that is not your own with no memories of what happened before. You somehow ended up in a bar and met a few weird looking things that call themselves monsters. The weird fire one takes you in and you met a lot on interesting people- or well skeletons and other fire beings? God you wished you had your memories and a body that isn't 15 or so inches long.At least this fire one lets you stick around.





	1. What happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written a fic in so long. Or outside of homestuck. I'm on a huge undertale kick and personally always loved all the reader insert undertale fics so... Here we are. It's going to be a super long slow burn cause... well you aren't really in a humanoid body? eventually you /do/ get a body but not for a few chapters or so?

It was odd. No, not odd. Just downright weird. One moment you were gathering some flowers from the foot of mount Ebott for a very special person, the next you woke up in a strange place with no memories of what you were doing before the flowers. Your body didn’t feel like your own, almost like it was someone else’s. It felt heavy yet light, hot yet cold. In fact you couldn’t even see. Could you see before now? Where were you? Why can’t you remember anything. Your mind is drawing blanks. It hurt to try to remember. Everything was too fuzzy. It hurt.

It hurts.

It hurts so fucking much.

Whatever darkness that had covered you felt thicker and darker. It felt like it was suffocating you. No. You couldn’t breath. Something wasn’t right this shouldn’t be happening. You were supposed to be picking flowers for…. someone. Not dying like this. What is going on. Nothing is making any sense. The darkness won’t let up. It’s engulfing you. You tried to move, to speak, to open your eyes, to do anything other than let this darkness consume you. Yet no matter what it won’t let up. It gets darker yet darker. Blacker than black. You can’t. It won’t stop???? Someone. Please. It won’t-

A sharp intake a breath and a sudden burst of light. The darkness slowly vanished. Almost like it was alive as you felt it loosened its hold on you and you can finally see. There were stars. Last thing you remembered was that it was day time, yet the stars shone above, twinkling brightly as the moon bathed you in a soft light. You sat up. Head still pounding from the encounter with… whatever that was. Your body still felt foreign and off. It aches as you try to stand. When on your own two feet it looked. Odd. The trees were still very tall. In fact it kind of looks like you were surrounded by very, very tall grass. This. Didn’t look right. 

You stood on your tiptoes. The grass only met up to your chest but it just doesn’t feel right? You turn and. What. There was an odd sensation down your spine. Slowly you turned your head and. You had a tail.

A long pink tail that had brownish fur speckling it. 

You reach out. Hands grasping the tail only to notice that your hands are now. Little pink looking paws with sharp little claws. That didn’t seem right? You quickly look around for something to see a reflection in. It’s too dark to see a reflection in any water so you are going to have to wait. You pat yourself down. You feel, soft and squishy. You had fur. Your ha- paws move up to your face. You… had a snout and some pretty big ears. This didn’t seem right. You were sure you were…. you were…. you weren’t whatever you are now. It seemed like you were a small animal of sorts. Maybe a mouse or a rat. You’re not sure how you remember that. Just moments ago you couldn’t remember what different animals were. Shoot your head really hurts. Maybe you should stop thinking and start walking.

So, you started to walk, only to feel uncomfortable and dropping down to all fours. The dirt under your paws felt cold. It must be winter time. Or close to it, but something told you that you were in spring before. Too bad it hurt your head to try and remember. You shake it off and continue to walk in this random direction until you see a building. 

The building was two stories high. It seemed to be made of red brick. There were flowers along the sides and from where you were you could see a door slightly ajar and a large dumpster. The scent of food wafted out of the back door. Your nose twitched at the scent. You were sure your mouth was watering if it could. Your stomach even gave a soft growl. How odd. You didn’t know you were hungry. Looking left and right you noticed no one. Or anything alive other than the trees and the grass. You quickly scurried over to the trash. You felt like you could eat whatever was in this large bin, but with the door ajar and a smell coming through you decided that you’d rather eat whatever was coming from inside. Passing the trash can you looked around and hopped onto the stairs and pushed your way through the door.

The sudden warmth was astonishing. It felt like home, yet you couldn’t see anything over these huge…. counters! That’s what they were called, but you could hear a few voices and a door constantly opening and shutting. It was muffled, but sounded almost like people were leaving. 

No matter. Your stomach felt empty and you could smell something heavenly coming from another door nearby. The door leading to the noises suddenly opens and the tapping of shoes on the tiled floor. You quickly run to the sweet-smelling door and push your way through the small opening underneath the door. The footsteps can still be heard but it was muffled again. It looked like you were now in a room with food. Lots and lots of food! It smells delicious. You find a rack and use your new found paws to climb up it and go straight to a box. It’s lettuce. Not exactly what you were smelling. But food is food! You quickly start to eat some of it. After tearing some of it off and munching away. 

The lights from outside the pantry suddenly turn off. And the footsteps are gone. Looks like you’re alone. Well, no matter. You have food here and it is quite cozy. Maybe you could stay here. Some voice in the back of your head told you that you shouldn’t stay in strange buildings, especially around food. But it was so comfortable here. You even left the lettuce and found a clean cloth in a box! It was all cozy. You didn’t like how dark it was though. It reminded you of when you woke up an hour or so ago, but the call to sleep seems to be strong. Curling your tail around yourself you get comfortable and your eyes shut. The pull to sleep too strong. The lovely smell and comfortable feeling of being safe washes over you and the world vanishes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo there's the first chapter. Thanks for reading? I know none of the skeletons or grillby is in it yet, but next chapter they will be!!! 
> 
> Anyways uh.... Let me know if you guys would like other AUs added and if you want any other grillby's to be added because.... Even tho the skeletons are probably main romance focus, I love Grillby so much and wanted to add him. I'm not 100% sure yet if he'll be apart of the whole romance thing, but I tagged it just in case if people were into the idea. Just let me know!


	2. Found by fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought I'd release the chapter early since I had finished it quickly. I was so excited over how many kudos and comments it got within the last few days that I couldn't stop myself from writing.  
> I have no beta reader so if there are any mistakes, please let me know.

It has been a full week since you have made this little box your home. You were very careful so that the person who walks back here doesn’t see you or know of your presence. You take what you need into your box and run out back when you have to do. Other things. So you don’t make a mess out of your box or your temporary home. You didn’t want to get caught and be outside again. You were sure that you wouldn’t survive out there. You had flashes of living outside before, but not as such a small creature. Especially when at night you hear the sounds of other creatures. Not to mention the dark still frightened you. Every time it would become pitch black you would curl in on yourself as tight as you could, pull the cloth as close to you as possible and wish for the sun. It was… uncomfortable.

But this morning was like any other. The sunlight filtering in under the door rousing you from sleep. You unfurl your tail and stretch your tiny lil arms and yawn. You sit up and rub your paws over your face and then shake your entire body. In the past week you have gotten used to being in this body. Maybe it always was your body. It was hard to remember and it hurt your head too much so you tried not to think too much about it. 

Suddenly the door to the pantry opened and the sound of a crackling fire and a warm glow entered the room. You lifted your head. It was the footsteps! He sometimes came in here and you were too scared to look, but you were curious about the light. It seemed like a fire instead of the light that appears from above. You could hear more crackling and you climb out of your box as quietly as you could. Lifting yourself onto the bottom shelf you look up past the box of potatoes and oh. 

It was a well dressed man. 

Wait. No. They were on _fire_. Your eyes go wide and you let out a squeak and run back to your box. That man was on fire! How is he not dead. How is this place not on fire. You were terrified. Everything scared you. 

In the box you covered yourself in the cloth and shook slightly. That’s when the box started to move. It jiggled a little bit and suddenly it felt like it was moving. Your entire body freezes underneath the cloth. This… Thing was going to kill you. Or kick you out! You had no idea what was going to happen, you were scared. The crackling got louder and you squeezed your eyes shut and, oh god the cloth was being unwrapped and the warmth of a fire was more noticeable. You curl tighter around yourself trying so hard to disappear. You feared that this fire thing will kill you, yet the warmth you are feeling almost screams don’t be afraid. You were still afraid though.

Suddenly something warm wrapped around your body and you were lifted out of the box. A soft voice spoke. Sounded similar to a fireplace in the wintertime. Just like your home with — “How did you get in here?” 

Your eyes open and you are face to face with the person on fire. They had glasses on and a thin white line where it looks like their mouth would be. The voice though warm and comforting also scared you. Everything seemed to scare you. You squeaked again and your claws dig into the hand. Oh. The hand is on fire too. You were going to die. This is how it ends. With no memories and as a rat. 

“Oh. Oh no don’t be scared. It’s okay.” Another hand starts coming towards you and you squeak again only for one of the fingers to touch the top of your head and run down your body. It was. Nice. The hand scratched lightly behind one of your large ears. You started to relax in the hand, your tail wrapping around the hand. You find yourself chirping. It was an odd sound but the person petting you seemed to smile slightly at the sounds you were making. The petting continued and the fire person seems to be continuing to talk. You aren’t sure why you can understand him when you clearly are different species, but his voice was very calming and you could understand every word of the soft-spoken crackling voice. It was almost lulling you to sleep. Almost.

The fire thing introduced himself as Grillby and that this was his bar and home that you had found yourself in. He spoke about what he did and other things like that. It was odd that this fire thing. Or well Grillby was telling you these things like he knew you understood. Maybe he did know. Maybe you gave him little looks and reactions that made him think you were sentient enough to. He smiled again and set you back in your box you’ve called home for the past week.

“Now I cannot have you staying in my pantry, but I will not kick you out.” Grillby starts to move, you assume he’s moving at least. The ceiling seems to be moving and you’re going wherever he is taking you. You want to know why he won’t kick you out or kill you. You’re a rat. You’re pretty sure that having a rat living in a pantry is unsanitary. Even if you kept clean you had a feeling that you shouldn’t be there. Oh. Shoot he’s speaking again, you almost mistook it for his fire just making noises.

“You do not look wild so I assume you would not survive on your own.” He hums, you aren’t sure how you know he hums, but you did. “I have gotten lonely since my niece has moved out. Would you like to stay?” 

You were shocked. Nodding your head, showing this fire guy that you wild love to stay! In fact you feel very special for the invitation. It feels like he doesn’t talk very much and you are getting an incredibly special treatment. Not just from the invite, but his voice was very nice and sounded a bit like he hardly used it and oh! He’s chuckling now? It’s a very nice sound, you could get used to just listening to him speak or, crackle while standing around. How had you not heard him before? It’s possible you were just too scared of being going to have registered such a nice noise. 

Your box get set down on top of a table. You stand on your hind legs and put your paws on the edge of the box. Tilting your head as you looked around the new room. Somehow he had brought you upstairs without you fully noticing. The box tips over as you excitedly look around the new area, your once fear vanishing thanks to Grillbys kind voice and his invite for you to stay. You squeaked at the fall and quickly get up and sniff around the table.

You look around and see on the wall some…. paintings? That word doesn’t feel right, but you can’t place your finger on the correct word. But these paintings. It has Grillby in a few with another fire being who was green. There was one of a building of similar color but surrounded by snow and a little ribbon in front of it. There was one that you couldn’t make out that well, but something about it tugged at your heart. Like you recognized it. The painting was becoming more and more fuzzy and you started to rub your head with your paws. 

It started to hurt again. If you could whine and cry you would. Your head was starting to pound. Make it stop. 

You were so wrapped up in your pain that you didn’t notice you were picked up again and you were laying on something warm. The pain ebbed away as the warmth seeped through your body and you laid your head down on whatever it was. Something warm was now running down from your head and down your back. You felt more like a cat than a rat at this moment. You figured it was Grillby that picked you up. Sight slowly came back to you and you’re face to face with him again. The smile was back, it made you feel special again and your head was hurting a lot less. You stared at each other for a bit before you climb up to his shoulders and sit yourself on them, wrapping your tail around his collar to stay in place. One of Grillby’s hands pet you under your chin again, it was nice. 

Grillby lets you stay on his shoulders late into the day, even feeding you. It was cool that he was letting you stay on his shoulders now, it was comfortable here.

You think you’ll enjoy living with this guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh thank you so much for your support everyone. Like I am just.... Blown away with how many people actually looked at my fic? I was kinda expecting it to end up being one of those that get maybe 10 views and like one kudos. You guys are amazing!!! 
> 
> I have also made a blog dedicated to undertale and I will be posting updates about acrasm as well as taking requests for drabbles or oneshots. [You can find it here!](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) I know it's early in the game as well, but if anyone wants to make fanart pls tag it acrasm on tumblr or you know. Submit it to the blog i had linked.  
> Also if you guys would like to see grillby as a romance option please tell me. Of course there is time before any of that even happens, but I think if I get some opinions early on it would make it easier not to write it. 
> 
> Next chapter will be out soon. The schedule for this fic is gonna be all over the place until I fully get settled in my classes.


	3. A night at work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly wasn't gonna post this till tomorrow, but eh, have another early chapter.  
> Thanks for all the kind comments and kudos though!!!! This chapter is a lot longer than the last two, like by a page or two. I just couldn't find a good place to stop sooo. Enjoy!  
> Once again I have no beta so any mistakes please let me know!

Midday bleed into afternoon and Grillby had been moving around a lot since then. You haven’t moved from his shoulders, well no you have. He set you down earlier so he could do something! You weren’t allowed to follow him. It was so weird. Only known this guy for a few hours and you were attached. Something about him made you feel safe and cared for. Maybe it was from that week of no interactions that had you wanting the attention. Who knows, you won’t question it too much. 

You gnawed your teeth together as Grillby walks down the stairs and down to his bar. Gnawing your teeth like this while comfortable means your happy and it kinda felt like your eyes were being pushed out of your head? It was a weird feeling but you knew it meant you were happy and Grillby didn’t seem to mind.

This was the first time you got a look at the front of the building, the bar part. It seemed homey, multiple tables, some booths and of course a bar. It was incredibly clean. It felt homey, familiar even, just like the rest of building. 

In the corner the jukebox comes to life, if you can even call it that, as Grillby seemed to be trying to get it to work. It sounds like it is dying and kind of just, stops. Makes a noise that hurt your ears and Grillby kinda hits it a couple times. Well guess that thing is broken, yet music was still playing? Possibly from another source that couldn’t be seen. The lights were turned on and Grillby goes back into the back room where he sets up things. Looks like he is getting ready to open up, but you’re still on his shoulder! Would this really be okay for you to hang out with him while he was working? Almost as if he had sensed your unease he pets your head with his finger again and it calms your nerves. It was very odd how calming he is. It’s only been a few hours and you feel like you’ve known him for years already. 

You really like the fire guy. 

Footsteps echo as Grillby walks out of the back room and back to the main part of the bar, he walks to the door and flips a sign in the window to show he was now open. From what you heard while in your box while hanging in his pantry this week, he was opening later than usual. Maybe it was because of you. 

It wasn’t long till the door opens and your head perks up and you see… Dogs.

You think they are dogs?

They are standing on two legs, but they are furry and they look like dogs. Grillby seems to nod to them as these dogs claimed the largest table. They seemed to be setting up some sort of card game. It was hard to tell from where you are sitting on Grillby’s shoulders. Sure you were high up, but you couldn’t see over the dogs themselves, you were a bit nervous about dogs, probably because you were a small rodent and your instincts tell you that larger animals can and will try and eat you. At least ones with teeth like that. 

Grillby starts to mix some drinks. You’re a bit worried that if he spills he could extinguish. Though you’re assuming its alcohol and you’re pretty sure alcohol is flammable? Would that mean it wouldn’t hurt him? You really did not want to find out. Who knows what would happen to you if he got hurt. That may be a bit of a selfish thought, but you couldn’t help it. You are just a rat after all. You’d probably end up back outside, possibly getting swooped up by an owl or barbarian owls and swooping is bad.

Two of the dogs came over to the bar and grabbed the drinks and thanked Grillby. Seemingly ignoring the fact that he had something hanging out on his shoulders. Which was… alright with you. You’d rather not be seen by the dogs. 

As the afternoon continued more and more strange looking people came in. You don’t think they are human, but who are you to judge. You aren’t even sure what you were before you woke up a week ago. Maybe you were like them, or maybe you were human. Sometimes you had flashes of humans. You’re surprised you even knew that word. 

Your memory is pretty shit and it seems you can remember what some things are and what others aren’t. Like paintings! You wish you could have looked at the ones upstairs a bit more. Maybe figure out why that one hurt your head like that.

Wait, time seemed to have suddenly passed very quickly. You must have fell asleep again because you noticed now that the lights outside the window has faded and it’s dark out there, but the building still has people inside. It had humans now too! They seemed weary when they looked at Grillby. Maybe because he was made of fire? Or maybe it was because you’re there. You’re pretty sure your kind isn’t considered a very clean animal to have around food and drinks. Even though you pride yourself in staying very clean!

The sound of the door opening and people calling out a name tears your attention away from the person giving you the evil eye. You can’t see over all the monsters, but it sounds like whoever it is is well known here.

You flatten yourself again and you chilled out on Grillby’s shoulders. The human that had been eyeing you is still doing so, it may have gotten worse even. What’s their vendetta against you? You aren’t doing anything to them. You’re doing your own thing. Just chilling out and not making any noises or bothering anyone. Except them apparently. Grillby doesn’t seem to notice and if he did it didn’t look like he cared. Well maybe he did care but wasn’t going to do anything about it. You can deal with the evil eye. As long as they don’t try to hurt you. 

That’s when a voice cuts in and distracts you from the glaring human.

“hey grillby the usual as usual.” Grillby starts to move to the back before you can see who ordered. You kinda are just here for the ride so you will not complain. You watch him as we works his magic. Like. Literal magic. Wow! You didn’t know magic existed! Maybe you were asleep when he made food for the other patrons, but watching his hands move and create this food was incredible. It was similar to making food normally, but something about it screamed magic, the sparks flying and the buzz in the air. It felt warmer, nicer. The food was done before you could even fully enjoy watching. He sure cooked quickly. 

The smell wafted up and you really wanted to eat it, you almost climbed down his arm to get to it. He did pass you a fry though. You don’t know if you could eat it, but it smells so good that you grab it and start nibbling it. It was the best fry you have ever had. Though you don’t have much to go off of. 

The fire escape door, only people on fire can use, is pushed as Grillby comes out with the plate of burger and fries. He sets it down in front of who you’re guessing ordered the food. Oh. It’s… a skeleton? You hadn’t seen any monsters that came in that looked like him. You liked his jacket though. Looks warm and cuddly, especially the hood, you could climb into it and probably get a bit lost in the fabric. The guy looked kinda cool honestly. You wonder if you could climb through his eye socket though. It looked empty, but there was a lil light coming out of it. So who knows if the socket is empty or just. One big eye. Getting into weird territory. 

“you know i think you have a stowaway there grillbz. looks like they like your fries though. guess they're all rat with me then.” 

You flicked your tail. Was that supposed to be a joke about you being a rat? You honesty could not tell, but Grillby thinks it’s mildly funny with how his shoulders rise and fall a bit, causing you to grip onto his shoulder a bit tighter with your claws. You chew on your fry and give him a little glare.

“looks like your stowaway is a tough crowd.” You watch him pour a massive amount of ketchup onto his food and it looks like the conversation is over as Grillby walks away. You turn to watch as the skeleton eats the fries and oh. His tongue is glowing. That is. Really weird. You’re kinda unnerved by the sight so you quickly turn back to facing the same way as your current ride is looking. There was the sound of a deep chuckle coming from behind you. Though it could just be all the people in the bar. 

The skeleton stays pretty late. Downing ketchup mixed with other drinks that makes your head hurt trying to remember all the names of. Kinda makes you feel a little sick to your stomach, even if technically being a rat means you can probably eat trash if it came down to it, but that’s off topic, if there even was a topic. People were trickling out and you were getting antsy from staying still for so long. 

The humans were gone so you assume it would be fine so you climb down Grillby’s and stretch your paws a bit, give your body a bit of its feeling back. You run down his arm which seemed to have startled him slightly. Your paws hit the top of the bar and makes a little tapping noise. You glance around the bar and notice some things. Such as it looked like the skeleton had fallen asleep and he still had some food on his plate from a few hours ago.

Food.

That you were now eyeing.

You wanted the food. You were going to get the food. Its not like he was eating it and its probably cold by now. Not to mention there’s only a few monsters left so you assume it’s okay. Especially since Grillby seems to be letting you scurry across the counter. 

You weave through some of the empty glasses that Grillby hasn’t gotten to cleaning yet. Your tail swishing behind you to steer you in the right direction. No warm hand has reached down to pluck you up so you just kept going until you got to the plate. You turn your head to eye the skeleton to see that he was still out cold. You even put a paw on his arm to see, the fabric seemingly sinking further than you expected. It’s almost as if he had no skin, which is dumb because he obviously doesn’t. It still startled you enough to make a slight noise, but it seems the noise and arm touching didn’t wake the snoozing skeleton. 

Struggling a bit to balance yourself you step away from the sleeping monster and go right for the fries that are absolutely slathered in the red substance. Not to mention it probably was cold by now and you’re sure that Grillby would make you some more food since you’ve hardly had anything today, but right now these cold fries looked like the most delicious thing you could ever imagine. In fact you had a weird flash of sitting in a dumpster eating cold fries. You don’t. When did that happen? It was strange, you didn’t want to think about that. You knew it would hurt to dwell on it so you brush it off.

You grab one of the fries with your paws and start to munch down on the cold fry. Goodness, it’s just as good as when it was warm. The tingly sensation in your chest returning and if you could smile you’re sure you would be. 

Suddenly something touched your head and you dropped your fry, the delicious fry… 

You just stared at it and then and whoever touched you and. Shit you got caught! The skeleton caught you eating his food! You have to run away. 

“i know grillbz food is good. but cold your horses. thats mine.” The skeleton was speaking to you. He even chuckled. Was he making fun of you? Was he mad? You couldn’t tell since it seemed he was still smiling, even if he looked half asleep. His skull was leaning into his hand that wasn’t touching your head. The hand that was near you was petting you. It felt weird. Not as weird as Grillby’s warm hand, but very unfamiliar. You still lean up into the finger petting you. Your fry completely forgotten. 

You were scared, but you also were enjoying the head scratches. 

Once again you were too focused on something other than your surroundings, first by the fry and then by the petting. That’s how you find yourself suddenly being picked up by the warm hands you were getting used to. The warmth was making you sleepy again. It seemed that the skeleton and your new friend were discussing something very quietly. Something about a tab and cousins? You weren’t listening. 

The skeleton, who you assume was okay with you, got up and said he had to go home and gave a wave. You know it would be weird but you waved back to say bye. With your tail of course, so it could be seen like you were saying goodbye or just moving to get comfortable. A voice in the back of your head told you not to let him know you were sentient. Or well, that you understood what he meant. 

Grillby saw the movement and didn’t say anything. It’s possible he thinks you’re just getting comfortable. 

Then it was just you and Grillby left. The sign in the window is flipped and Grillby starts to clean the bar as you hung around his neck again. It took no time before it was just as clean as it was this morning, it is incredible how efficient Grillby seems to be. The glasses were put away and the dishes brought to the back. It looked like no one had ever entered. How he did it so quickly you may never know, just like how quickly he made that food. The world sure was full of mysteries.

Lights turn off and the fire exit door is pushed open and Grillby goes up the steps to the second floor. He picks up the box with your cloth you had been using as a blanket and brings it into a room you haven’t been in before. Your box is set down on a small table by… by… a bed. That was the word. And you are set down in the box. He gives a motion that you assume means stay. 

He walks away from the box and you hear some shuffling, so what do you do? You stand up on your back legs to look over the edges of the box. On the other end of the room you see a lot more light. Tilting your head you try to see better and. Oh! 

You quickly sit back down. You just saw Grillby shirtless. The literal fire monster’s body was just as warm and bright as the parts of him that could be seen when he was clothed. You were sure you’d be blushing if you could. He was incredibly hot after all. You were kinda embarrassed that you looked, but you stood up again anyways. Another peak couldn’t hurt right? Wait. Where did he go, he wasn’t there anymore. You glanced around the room suddenly worried. Not for long though. 

Grillby comes back and gets onto the bed. He dropped something else in your box. Looks like more food and another cloth. You could definitely use the cloth and make your box a lot more comfortable. Though you go straight for the food nibbling on it. You hear a chuckle and what sounds like goodnight before the light source above your box shuts off and the only light is a soft orange glow that comes from the fire in the bed. You stop eating and sit up again to look to see what was going on. Oh, he was going to bed. You quickly finished your food and grabbed the new cloth dropped in your box and dragged it to a corner where you made a little nest of sorts. You curled up. You’re very happy that you were allowed to stay.

You swore you felt someone watching you as you drifted off though. Even hearing something that you couldn’t distinguish. You tried to hone in on it but your exhaustion from today’s events claims you before you could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/)  
> Can leave questions or over all bother me. I really don't mind ^^. Also I am... Really bad at puns so oh boy if they don't make sense sorry
> 
>  ~~You can vote on if you'd like Grillby to be a romance option of not[ HERE ](https://linkto.run/p/62Y1FPEL) ~~ VOTING IS DONE
> 
> I will try to do updates twice a week, but it really depends. If not twice a week expect at least a chapter a week.
> 
> There is a reference of another game in this chapter, very very subtle. If you can figure it out I'll let you pick who rat meets next!


	4. Another day, another meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe the long weekend kinda screwed me over a bit so only one chapter this week. I thought it was tuesday only to notice it was thursday.  
> Anyways  
> FANART:  
> [ First ever fanart!!! Wow](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/177674364403/first-ever-fanart-for-acrasm-done-by)

_“Come on” static “there’s not much time! We have to go.” Someone was laughing. Their face indistinguishable._

_Another voice speaks. It sounds familiar. “Oh come on. He can wait a few minutes. I just want to grab some flowers!”_

_“Well hurry up, we don’t wanna keep” more static “waiting.”_

What was going on. Why was there static, who are these two people. You can’t recognize them but at the same time there was a tugging at your chest telling you that you knew them. That you knew the one telling the other to hurry up and the other person was…

You jolt awake, your fur sticking up and you’re baring your teeth. The cloths that you have been using as blankets are all tangled up around you and wrapped around your tail. That dream had startled you awake. Maybe it was a memory. It felt so familiar, but at the same time, how could it be when you had no memories of who you were, your name, what you were and pretty much most things.

You could hardly even remember what certain items where.

Shaking off the feelings of doubt and confusion you stand up on your hind legs and put your paws on the top of the box. Looking around to see if your current housemate (roommate? Owner. Whatever he is to you) is still in bed. Alas, the warm glow from the bed is nowhere to be seen. In fact the bed was made and the window on the other side of the room showed that it was in fact sometime during the day. Possibly mid morning or early afternoon. 

You weren’t a clock you didn’t know the time right off the bat.

Crawling out of the box you hop over to the bed. It still felt warm, as if Grillby had just gotten out of bed and made it not too long ago. Your paws sink a bit into the bedding and you climb down the bed and onto the hardwood floor. Your paws making little tapping noises as walk across it and over to the door, there looks like there is space underneath it for you to crawl under. First your head is squished under it and then you push yourself through. Body flat as you crawled all the way out. 

You glance around and notice you’re in a short hallway and head to where there were some sounds. There were coming from whoever was wearing the shoes in the kitchen. You look up, yup it’s Grillby. You made a noise and jumped up onto his leg, grasping the pants leg you crawl up it. It was fairly hard to grip onto the fabric but you were determined to either climb up onto his shoulders or the top of the counter. If he had food, counter, if not, his shoulders will be your home again. 

Something wraps around your middle and something tries to pick you off of the pants. You try and dig your claws in to hold on, but the thing who grabbed you was stronger and you’re set down on the counter. 

Oh it was Grillby!

You make a little squeaking noise and sit on the counter. You would have preferred your perch from last night, you almost went to climb up his arm before he turns around to continue whatever he was doing before. Which from the smell that was breakfast. Over by the. Shoot what was that called. It cooked food, you used to use it for…. you used it before? Oh wait. A stove! That’s what it was. But why would he need a stove if he was made of fire? Maybe one day you’ll get the answer, but since no one can understand you, you won’t know. 

You watched Grillby work from where you sat. You weren’t sure why, but you just can’t look away. Softly glowing hands moving a pan around, things being dropped in and the sound of food sizzling. A familiar feeling tugging at your chest. Why was this so familiar. It almost hurt, as if your lungs are trying to push their way through your throat. You rub your head with your paws, you would claw at your chest, but your hands went straight to your head first. 

While distracted Grillby seemed to have moved away from the stove. Setting two plates on the table. You were then picked up and set down in front of one of the plate. It was so strange to you honestly. Grillby treats you as if you know what’s going on and you aren’t just a mindless animal he decided to take in out of pity. He let you stay, he let you hang out on his shoulders while he had customers, and now he gave you your own plate of food. Maybe…. Maybe he did know you weren’t a rat. Maybe he knew you before you became this!!!

 

That is if you were anything else before becoming a rat.

Stopping yourself before you go into a downwards spiral of trying to remember things you pick up some of the scrambled egg. As you were eating it felt like someone was watching you again. You glanced up and looked around to check who it could be. Only to find out it was Grillby. You couldn’t read his face. You tilted your head, but continued to eat.

It almost looked like Grillby was going to say something. Only to shake his head and go back to eating his food. Which you weren’t 100% sure was. The curiosity over what had been going through Grillby’s mind quickly vanished as you turned your attention back to the food. Food was a good way to distract you it seems. It wasn’t long till the eggs you had been eating had vanished and Grillby was up and placing the plates in something that you assume will wash them. You didn’t want to know what happened when he touched water. Just like the other night before you didn’t want to know what would happen if he accidently spilled alcohol on himself. 

Grillby moves around the kitchen, his light flickering as we moved around. His hand then was on the table again, like he was offering it to you, which you take. You climb up onto his arm and then up to his shoulders again. You rub your face against his and take your spot on his shoulders. Looks like he’s gonna let you hang out with him again. Maybe even while he was working again, that would be fun! After all you might have made a friend last night and would very much like to see them again, maybe make a few more. Maybe one of the monsters would even understand you! That would be great, even though it’s not like you’ve tried to speak.

Wait… Can you speak? You haven’t tried yet. Maybe you should try while right next to Grillby’s face! Maybe he’ll understand you. That would great. Okay here you go. Three… two… one 

“Squeak!” Well. That worked out as well as you expected, at least Grillby found it amusing since he seems to be chuckling. Though maybe it’s just his fire crackling. You’ve only been in physical contact with him for a day, you’ll probably eventually figure out what is just his fire making noises or if it’s actually him. Unless it was all him, then it would make things easier on you.

While stuck in your own head… again… Grillby has moved his way downstairs and into the bar, which now you can tell the time from the clock over the entrance. It said it was about 11 am. That seemed fairly early since the night before the two of you made your way to bed fairly early in the morning. Maybe being a person made of fire meant Grillby didn’t need to sleep very long. You kind of wondered if he needed sleep at all, even if he did sleep last night. 

Instead of being scared like you have been for the past week, seems like your more curious. 

You ended up hanging around on his shoulders while he moved around his bar and backroom, which seemed like it was a kitchen/storage. You now had a better view of the room instead of on floor level and without the fear of being caught or accidentally stepped on. Or purposely stepped on. Being stepped on seemed like a bad idea.

Grillby was fairly quiet while he moved around and set things up for the incoming crowd. You had a feeling he wasn’t a very talkative guy, even if when he found you he spoke quite a bit. This was fine though. His warmth and just the sound of his footsteps, which once scared you, was fairly calming. The quietness of it all was making you sleepy again, you yawned and stretched out on his shoulders and anchored yourself with your tail. You were kind of a lazy rat it seems. Though you were sure if you fell asleep now you’d have too much energy later and probably run all over the place in the bar given the chance.

Time moved on and Grillby had opened the bar a few hours ago. You still were just kind of hanging out on his shoulders and a few people had mentioned it, but never said anything bad. Mostly jokes. You think that most of them like you or possibly they don’t mind you here. You hope that it’s that they like you. You liked listening to them talk and interact with each other. 

You were kind of hoping your new skeleton friend would show up, but they were nowhere in sight! Grillby seemed to have sensed your distress since he set down the glass he was cleaning to pet your head, which you eagerly leaned into. 

The door opened and voices ring out. You try to see who it was. Maybe it was your skeleton friend! He got a greeting just like that! 

You at least thought it was your new friend till. Well. Till you noticed the one who walked in was definitely similar, but had a very different style. 

Compared to the soft and comfortable look and vibe your skeleton friend gave off, this one gave off a feeling of danger. The fur on his jacket looked soft, but the rest of him looked a bit rough. His teeth looked like they could probably tear you apart. The gold tooth shining a bit in the light. It was very intimidating, you were actually a little bit scared. Your fur stuck up a bit when you heard his voice. It was a bit deeper than your skeleton friend, a little intimidating but also nice? His voice also sounded like it was either used a lot or very little, scratchy.

What is with you and voices today. 

“so i see you got a rat in the midst.” Grillby was now standing in front of the intimidating skeleton. He shrugs a bit, seemingly ignoring the comment. “well whatever. fellby is closed so here i am.” 

That name meant nothing to you, but the way he eyed you while saying it kinda scared you. Your fur was still standing on end. You tried to hide under Grillby's collar, even if you couldn’t fit. The new skeleton ordered something but kept his eyes on you. It was like he wanted to eat you! His eye lights stayed trained on you as Grillby goes to the back to grab whatever he ordered. Once out of sight your fur flattened back down. You don’t know why you were so scared. He just looked like an edgy version of the skeleton from the other night. 

Maybe… maybe you knew him?

No, you don’t think you could know him, he felt wrong. Like he wasn’t supposed to be here. Not in this bar at least. Grillby seemed to not have minded him. Maybe he was related to your skeleton friend. 

Soon enough a bottle of mustard and a burg was set in front of the scary skeleton and he speaks up again. Something about a tab. Grillby seemed to have sighed and walked away. Just like the other night with the other skeleton you turn around to look at him. He was… drinking the mustard and then winked. What the hell? What was with skeletons with condiments. 

Wait. 

He winked at you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the update! You can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) If I don't reply to your comment I'm so sorry....
> 
>  ~~You can still vote for if you'd like Grillby to be a romance[ HERE ](https://linkto.run/p/62Y1FPEL) ~~ STOP VOTING. POLL IS DONE. Anyone who voted after 9/10 are null. Grillby is a romance option. 
> 
> Uh also. WTH are the other grillby's nicknames. 
> 
>  
> 
> ~~btw if grillby does become a romance option it would just be this one and not any others unless like i end up writing it...~~


	5. A trip out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has been reading my fic and giving such kind words. I'm honestly so honored that people actually like what I'm writing????  
>  **Anyways important note please read**  
>  I am in direct line for hurricane Florence so I will not be able to do another update this week. I am also unsure if i will be able to update next week as well due to having a paper due and well. Aftermath of the storm. So a possible week hiatus.

It’s been a few days since the winking incident, aka what you’re calling the scary skeleton winking at you, you have gotten used to Grillby’s schedule. Wake up, eat, set up, open up, hang out on Grillby’s shoulders, interact with customers who don’t mind you, steal their food if they order any, close up, clean up, and go to bed. There hasn’t been many hiccups since Grillby officially let you stay with him. Except for the occasional human who becomes vocal about how unsanitary you are or why you’re allowed to run around freely.

You’ll have everyone who has said that know that you keep yourself very clean! You just, couldn’t. 

Though you wonder if the monsters knew that you can understand them. They treat you all very nicely, or it’s because Grillby seemed to have allowed you to do pretty much whatever you wanted. Though you did see a one that looked like they were a rat too, but a lot larger, and they could speak. You were kind of envious. You wanted to speak. Not squeak or make various noises, you wanted to voice things. Tell Grillby that you appreciate that he’s letting you live with him, tell your skeleton friend you like his pets. Or tell the scary one to stop messing with you, you honestly were intimidated by him. Thankfully he only came around that one time. Your skeleton friend on the other hand came by often! You liked him a lot, especially how he treats you.

You wonder again. Maybe they think you’re one of them. They all do look different, maybe they just think you’re a smaller monster. Would make sense with how they treat you. 

“I really should think of a name for you…” The voice you now recognize as Grillby's spoke from across the table, bringing you out of your thoughts. You had discovered he doesn’t speak all that much, but you enjoy the times he does talk to you. Instead of ignoring it like you did day one and the day after, you tend to pay a lot more attention to his words. Savoring the sound of crackling and popping. 

Though on the topics of names. Do you need a name? You probably had one before hand, but you couldn’t remember it. When your tried to think of anything of your past, it either hurt or your heard static. Like the dream from the other night. But names! You wondered what sort of names Grillby would come up with. Or maybe he’ll ask any of your new friends will come up with ideas. Hopefully you get a chance to voice— er squeak your opinion. You already made some noise over your skeleton friend calling you squeakers and fry. You made enough noise that usually made the skeleton laugh more and continue to call you squeakers.

A warm finger pets the top of your head and goes down your body and then comes back up to scratch a bit behind your head. Maybe your thought of them seeing you as one of them isn’t the truth. Maybe they just treat animals as if they understand them. That’s also a nice thought.

As long as you didn’t get eaten or killed you won’t question how they treat you too much.

Anyways, it looked like Grillby was wearing something much different then his usual clothes you’ve seen him wear when he works. He wore a dark blue scarf and a matching jacket. He’s still dressed very nicely, but not the usual dapper look you’ve gotten used to. He grabs something that jingles then looks back at you. He had this look on his face that you have finally been able to pick out. He looked confused. Like he was trying to decide something. 

His now gloved hand is set in front of you. You knew this routine by now as well, you step up onto his hand, before you could crawl up to take your spot around his shoulders he lifts you up and you are face to face or well with his chest. You let it a confused squeak. That’s when you noticed a pocket. Was he expecting you to climb into the pocket. You much preferred that soft looking scarf to that pocket. 

Squinting your eyes up at him you act like you’re going into his pocket, instead you climb up his chest and crawl under his scarf. You can hear the sound of popping that you take as a surprised noise. Your claws dig a bit into the jacket and you wiggle through the scarf till you find yourself incredibly warm and comfortable, you could even stick your head out. You chitter your teeth, the happy sound. It’s one of the few behaviors your can’t stop yourself from doing when it happens. Even being sentient doesn’t mean you can fully escape from some rat like behavior. 

“The naming can wait. I have some errands I must run...” There was an unspoken thought he was going to say. You can tell. “I do not think it would be safe to leave you alone that long though.” 

Oh. He didn’t trust you alone in his home. That kind of hurt your feelings a bit. You buried a bit more into his scarf. Or maybe he was worried you’d get hurt without him here. Or possibly lonely, but you can’t imagine why. He let you run around his bar as he set it up and while customers were around. You suppose this is fine though. You probably would have just ran around on his bed while he was gone. Or stare at the paintings on the walls, or try and enter his closet where you swear somebody was hiding in. You can investigate all that another time hopefully.

Down the stairs and out through the back door you go. By now the leaves on the trees have all fallen and a very light dusting of snow covers the ground. You’re a bit worried about it, but Grillby seems to ignore it. He seemingly ignores a lot of things you’ve noticed. 

He stops in front of a… a…. you don’t even know HOW to describe this thing. It was big and dark red. It looked shiny. It had some of the snow on the top of it. You can hear Grillby sigh as his gloved hand opens the strange thing. You looked at the strange contraption and hid in his scarf. It looked scary. You were jostled around a bit and you dug your claws into the scarf to hold on, your tail wrapping around Grillby’s neck to keep yourself from falling out. 

There was a roaring sound and then. Soft music. It sounded similar to the music that plays in the bar. Very soft, but you could dance to it. You’re pretty sure someone said it was jazz. It calmed you down at least, sticking your head out of the scarf and noticing you are no longer outside. You’re in the weird metal thing and outside was moving! You were shocked. How was it moving. What was going on. 

You almost fell out of the scarf trying to see why everything as it moved by quickly.

Everything was moving so quickly, but it ended so quickly as well. The weird machine stopped and the music stopped. Grillby gets out of the weird moving thing and the cold air hits your nose. You quickly hide in his scarf. You could feel his warmth spike a bit from the change in temperature. You can hear people chattering and someone greeting Grillby and then the temperature goes back up. It wasn’t the warmth from Grillby, but from all around. 

You stick your head out again and your nose is greeted with so many smells. You were tempted to jump out of the scarf but you knew you shouldn’t. You weren’t back home so you were sure it wouldn’t fly if you did. 

You kept hidden in his scarf as Grillby walked around and seemed to pick through items. Some of it food some of it. Pet stuff. Oh! He’s getting things for you. Maybe an official bed instead of your box. Sure you love your box, but something squishy with a lot of things to pull around you was more desired. 

While Grillby was looking at… something that wasn’t for you, you looked away and noticed. Two skeletons? Wow were skeletons like, common. The smaller one reminded you of the ones you met, but the taller one gave off this vibe of being similar to your skeleton friend except he was wearing the ugliest orange hoodie you had ever seen. The smaller one seemed to be talking excitedly, you can hear him from all the way at the other side of the aisle even. 

“OH I THINK THIS BRAND WOULD BE BETTER!” The taller one seemed to reply, but you couldn’t hear them. 

You watch them for a bit before Grillby starts to walk that way, probably needing to get something from over there.

It seems like the ugly sweater skeleton notices Grillby first. “well hey grillby, its mice to see you out.” You hear an exasperated sigh come from the other skeleton. You are guessing that he had noticed you and was making a joke like your skeleton friend does. But, you’re not a mouse! How rude. 

Grillby didn’t say anything but gave them a nod. You kept an eye on the ugly hoodie skeleton and the other one. He had stars in his eyes when he noticed you sitting on Grillby’s shoulder. You had no idea how someone’s eyes could become stars, but maybe it was normal? You’ve never seen it before, but it was kinda cute. 

Suddenly he asked if he could hold you. You glanced up to Grillby almost trying to convey that you were not comfortable being held by someone you didn’t know, especially someone as excitable. Yet you were fished out of the scarf like it was nothing at set onto a blue glove. It was kinda cold. 

Then something was touching your head. Oh he was petting you. Okay. You can tolerate this. You even wrap your tail a bit around his wrist.

“PAPY LOOK!!! I THINK THEY LIKE ME.” No. Wrong. You like the pets. He’s too loud in your opinion. The stars in his eyes seem to twinkle. That was kinda... Cute. So maybe you did like him a bit, but you did notice that the ugly orange one, papy you’re guessing, seemed to agree. Even Grillby. Ug you just like the head scratches. 

Not soon enough you were passed back to Grillby where you quickly snuggle back up into his scarf. The two skeletons walked past you two and went on their way as you and Grillby continued shopping. Food that you didn’t recognize, your new bed, some blankets, a food dish and other items were in the thing in front of Grillby. Eventually he bought the items. He passed over something that you assumed was money so you are assuming these were things he was buying. 

You two got back into the scary contraption and went back home. You don’t remember much after that. You had fallen asleep on the way back and while things were put away. It wasn’t until much later that you were startled awake laying down on that new bed you saw Grillby pick up early. Something woke you up. Something you had been sensing since night one with Grillby. 

A voice that sounded unused and at barely a whisper filled the quiet room. Five words that filled you with a fear that you have never felt before. 

_“I’ve finally found you _____”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha sorry for the cliffhanger. Will have to sit with that for awhile....
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/)
> 
> voting on Grillby has ended and its overwhelmingly positive so he will be a romance option. Next poll will be which AUs you guys would like to see added in the future, so you can either leave a comment or send a message to my tumblr about it.
> 
> Edit: changed y/n to ____


	6. A voice in the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am safe, Thank you to those who were worried! The hurricane did a weird turn and pretty much missed me? I'm still getting rain and possible power outages but eh.  
> Also I was going to post this next week instead, but i decided instead to post it for Undertales anniversary. There is still a slim chance there will be an update next week, but if anyone has noticed. I'm very.... Very...... indecisive and post at random times. Anyways enjoy.

The air was thick, darkness was seeping in through everywhere. The soft glow from the bed that was now a comfort to you slowly faded away as the darkness engulfed all the light. You couldn’t breath. No intake of breath, nothing. All you could do was try and hide under your blankets like you did when you were younger. Like your brother used to tell you to do when… when.

“Oh… don’t hide ______. You can’t hide anymore. It’s been so long since I last saw you my dear.” You can feel something tugging at your blankets. Trying to untangle you so it can grab you. It was burning cold. It hurt. You were scared. You wish your brother was here. He would protect you, he always did. 

“Now this won't do….” The voice sent chills down your spine. The friendly words sounded more threatening the longer they spoke. The chill spread through your body, your lungs burned from the lack of air and you could feel a wetness going down your face. You don’t think rats can cry, but it seems like you are. But it didn’t matter, you felt like you were dying. You probably were. The whispering swirling through the air told you that you were. To give up. That no one was coming to help you, it was over and phrases you could not understand but left a bitter taste in your mouth. 

You were drowning in the cold grip of the loudest voice that knew your name.

Suddenly the cold vanished and you couldn’t feel the softness of your blankets. There was a blinding light and the harsh whispering that had invaded the space had gone quiet and instead there was soft murmuring. It was warm and soft, comforting. You blinked. Once. Twice, and suddenly you could see. It was… Grillby. He was holding you while speaking softly to you. His flames seemed brighter than you had ever seen them before, it was so pretty. Did he see what you were hearing? Did he scare them away? You couldn’t ask him, but your heart said he knew something. He was softly petting your head with his entire hand, that didn’t seem right though, his hand was big enough to cover your head before, but now it only covered a small part. You didn’t dwell on that thought to long, Grillby was continuing to murmur in a language you couldn’t understand. 

But your thoughts were brought back to what just happened. You remembered something that you have no idea how you could forget. You had a brother and a name. You don’t remember anything else about your brother, but he existed and he protected you, just like Grillby is now. And your name, how could you ever forget you had a name, everyone had one. You included.

“Shh. Its okay ______….” That had confirmed your suspicions, Grillby had heard the strange voice, he knew your name now. He also possibly scared whatever it was away and that’s why he is burning so bright. “I’ll protect you.” 

Grillby seemed to have stopped talking after that, instead he continues to hold you, his warmth and soft petting calming you down. You felt protected, safe. It did not take long for sleep to have take you again. This time you were plagued with weird dreams of swirling shadows and weird patterns, but you felt no fear because you knew Grillby would protect you. 

—

You wake up the same way you have since the first night in Grillby’s room, comfortable. You stretch your paws and yawn. Scratching your head with your back leg and then giving yourself a quick clean. Looking around you noticed that the room was back to normal. As if last night terror had never happened. The blinds were pulled up and the morning light shined in. The bed nearby was once again empty and you hopped onto it and then climbed your way down and into the kitchen where you could smell the food coming from. And as per usual routine you run up Grillby’s leg and up onto the counter. 

Chilling out on the counter, Grillby was making pancakes for you two. You watched as he flipped the golden discs and set them down onto a plate. You see him pause as he looked at the new food dishes he had gotten you and instead grabs another plate. He cuts one of the pancakes into a smaller piece and sets it down on the plate for you. Along with items you assume he got the other day. Some veggies. A weird mix, but you assume it’s what a rat is probably supposed to eat? 

You weren’t sure, you pretty much ate anything that you could. 

Nothing was mentioned about last night so you somewhat wonder if maybe it was a dream you had. A very terrible dream if it was one. You kinda hope it was a bad dream. Then whatever that thing was it couldn’t actually hurt you. And knowing your luck so far, it probably was a dream. Even if a voice deep down said not to underestimate the voice in the darkness.

Breakfast was calm and Grillby goes back to his usual routine, you of course join him. Till he walks into the bar and you kind of just run around in there. Got to get your exercise someway. You mostly sleep a lot of the time, gotta be active sometimes. You climb up on a table and then climb back down. Run through the table and chair legs. It’s pretty much all you did till Grillby came back out and went to the front door to flip the sign. You quickly run over and climb up until you’re on his shoulders. 

You kinda feel like the mascot of the place. 

“Now _____, try not to tease the guard tonight.” You would sigh if you could. You liked messing with the dogs after you found out they weren’t actually going to hurt you. Wait. Hold on. He said your name. But. But. That would mean it wasn’t a dream. Oh god, it wasn’t a dream. You could feel panic seeping in. If Grillby knew your name that means that the cold voice is real and is after you. 

Something was touching your head and your fur flattened out. Grillby was petting your head. He always seems to be able to calm you down. You’re thankful for it. 

You curl around his neck and Grillby gets to work. The regulars come in and so do some humans. The humans always give you such dirty looks. You tend to hang out with Grillby when they were around. You didn’t think it would be safe for you to run around like usual if they were here. The humans hung around longer than usual. It wasn’t until your skeleton friend made his appearance that the humans finally trickled out. He was here later than usual and he wasn’t alone. 

“dont see why i had to come to pick up shit too.” It was the deeper voice. It was the intimidating skeleton. Huh. Maybe the two did know each other. They were sitting at the bar together. They called Grillby over to order. You ran down his arm to sit in front of your skeleton friend. Your friend pets your head and you climb into his sleeve. You kind of squeeze through the hole. The scent of ketchup was strong, but there was a hint of something else. You eventually pop out and give a triumphant squeak. 

“oh hey squeakers. guess you missed me huh.” He pets your head and you get comfy in his hood. The look the intimidating skeleton gave was hilarious. He looked offended at most. His eye lites were gone and his smile seemed to have fallen a bit. Then he was scowling and looked towards the back of the bar. Maybe he was mad because he wanted you to be on his shoulder. Sure his jacket seemed a lot softer, but you liked your skeleton friend. You should probably call him by his name. Snas. That’s what they called him at least. 

“aw red. dont tell me youre jealous over a little rat.” Snas laughs. You liked when he laughed. You’re really glad he became your friend. Even though he was a skeleton he was warm like Grillby. Not as warm, but there was a very comfortable warmth radiating from him and his jacket was just as warm. You were getting sleepy even. You could take a quick nap. You know Grillby will eventually pick you up and have you hang out with him till close. You were so cozy though, just a quick nap. A small one. 

“SANS YOU’RE LATE!” A suddenly loud voice startled you awake. You were still in Snas hoodie. Who was this sans? Was it the intimidating one. Such a similar name… wait. Where were you. You twist and turn in the hood, you were a little stuck till you got a hold of the fluff between your paws and you climb your way out. Head poking out and oh! Another skeleton! He looked a lot like ugly sweater skell, but had the same energy as stars skeleton. 

You went off topic. You are not at Grillby’s bar. You didn’t recognize the place or the smells. The intimidating skeleton was nowhere to be seen. But at least you were with Snas. The tall one seemed to have noticed you as you crawled onto his shoulder. Even Snas looked a little surprised. The two looked at each other then their attention was directed back up to you.

“well hey there. looks like we got a visitor.” Well fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha. Well... We are starting to see somethings happen??? Cool right? I only have the bare bones of my ideas for this, so right now its kinda still up in the air where i want it to go. I'm still open to adding other AUs as well. But anyways thanks for reading!
> 
> As always You can [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/). If you wish for me to see anything, either submit it there or tag it as acrasm on tumblr.


	7. A new place Pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to post the chapter a day early, cause I'm putting off my essay. Lol.
> 
> I keep forgetting, but this has not been beta read since I have none, so if you see any issues please lmk!

Sitting on a table in an unfamiliar room with Snas and a very tall skeleton was. Interesting. The taller one kept talking as if you weren’t there, then again you don’t think he knows you knew what he was talking about. It seemed to be very much a one sided conversation. Snas kept saying things like, “okay” or “sure bro.” You’re guessing this tall one was Snas’ brother. Or was it bad to assume that? Or maybe skeletons come in pairs. You honestly were not sure. Anyways, the two were talking for quite awhile. You could eventually hear more footsteps and more voices coming from outside the kitchen

Wait.

You recognized a few of them. It was star skeleton and ugly hoodie skeleton. You could recognize those two fairly quickly. It seems voices are easy for you to distinguish. Even if thinking about it, snas, intimidating and stars skeletons voices were eerily similar. There also was a new unfamiliar voice, similar to this loud one speaking to Snas, but scratchy, with a hint of being worn out, it kind of reminded you of the intimidating one. You could hear the louder voices complaining about how late someone named Red and Sans were. Something about their monthly greasy food night being held later at night then usual. You weren’t listening too closely since all these loud voices were leading you to having another headache. You rubbed your head trying to alleviate the pain in your head. It was a different kind of noise you were used to.

The room was cold, not cold like last night, just the temperature was cooler than you were used to and the voices got louder and louder as they came closer. Eventually it seemed they all were in the same room. Your eyes closed before you got a look at all the new people and your head gave a slight throb. You wish you were back with Grillby. At least with him, you wouldn’t be so scared being around so many skeletons. Your instincts are screaming for you to run. Your eyes open and you are face to face with six skeletons. That’s it.

You bolted. Your claws making little scratching noises as you ran across the table and around a vase full of something unknown and you leap onto the counter. There was suddenly a bunch of noises behind you and you could sense hands reaching for you.

Nope. No. Nada. 

Running faster than before, as if it was the first night you had awoken, you scrambled around the plates and cups. Past some container and glitter. Your foot sticks to something sticky, you try not to dwell over how gross that felt. Jumping over the sink and you find a window and start to climb up the bottom part that sticks out a bit. You could hear more crashing noises behind you and someone yelling “CATCH THAT FILTHY THING!” And then you couldn’t move. It didn’t feel like a hand had wrapped around your body or grabbed your tail. No. It felt similar to last night. Similar suffocating darkness that stole your breath. But this time it was without it actually being dark. 

You try to move, to run. You could move your body, but you can’t break free of whatever had you. The room was moving the opposite way that you were trying to go. It was like you were floating in the air and suddenly you landed into a very cold, yet somewhat soft hand. The feeling vanished and the room was very quiet.

“didn't know that shit would work on an animal.” You look up and. Oh god it was the intimidating skeleton. His gold tooth seeming to be more menacing than it had before. With the light reflecting off of it. You weren’t sure if it was the adrenaline from trying to run or fear from being near the one skeleton you feared but your heart won’t stop pounding. 

Your fur started began stick up and you backed up. There wasn’t much room for you to go. Either fall off his hand or run up his arm. You chose to back it up. Your tail hung off the end of his fingers and one of your back paws was close to falling off. His smile seemed to stretch across his face in a much tighter looking fashion. It reminded you of some vague memory that started to bring on another headache. So not only are you scared, worried about Grillby, and in an unknown area. You now have to deal with a nasty headache brought on from the loud skeletons and your memory trying to claw its way to the surface. Fantastic.

“RED! THAT'S NO WAY TO TREAT A GUEST. EVEN IF THEY ARE AN ANIMAL!” It was the first loud tall one you met. The one that kept calling for Sans, whoever that was. You looked over to him and he looked quite mad, with his arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed. How he had eyebrows you had no clue bit pegged it on magic. 

Everything was magic it seems.

“THEY ARE NOT A GUEST. THEY ARE A FILTHY ANIMAL THAT SHOULD BE DISPOSED OFF.” It was the voice from the unfamiliar skeleton. You turn your head to look at that one and your heart dropped. He was just, if not more, intimidating than the one currently holding you. He seemed to be the second tallest skeleton in the room, but it wasn’t his size that scared it. And it wasn’t the same feeling of intimidation from the one holding you. No. It was just a feeling you had that made you terrified for your own life. Out of fear you shot forward and into the sleeve of the intimidating skeleton. There was a yelp and the sound of someone chuckling. You clung to his arm, though you notice that this is a space between his arm that you squeeze yourself into. The warmth of his jacket and the closed space is helping you calm down, though you could smell mustard which was weird and a bit gross.

“nah no killing them. they're grillbys. don't think it would be too smart to kill his pet.” You could hear a muffled voice from your new hiding spot. There’s more voices that all seem to either talk over each other. Then you felt a hand touch your tail and it tugs. 

You squeak loudly and try to squirm your way further up onto intimidating skeletons arm, only to be pulled out. It was painful being held by your tail, luckily someone else grabs you and holds you in a way that supports your body and you aren’t being dangled around. It was the ugly hoodie skeleton. He gave you this look that pretty much told you to stay put. Well. He smelt nicer than the intimidating one so you’re more than willing to do as he asks. He also had the same vague feeling that Snas gave off so you’re willing to sit still for him.

You’re assuming the skeleton you were hiding in was named Red. So now you know at least two names. So that was nice. 

It seems he was a bit upset that you’re no longer using his arm as a hiding place. What a weirdo. He just keeps sending weird signals your way. This is one of the reasons why he intimidates you. You just can’t get a decent lock on him. Well. That and the fact he looks like he could eat you. Or kill you. Probably kill you, you’re pretty sure they don’t eat rats. 

“so we call that orange fucker we got his pet or somethin?” There was two voices after that saying something about language. The bickering started up again. You look up to the ugly orange and tried to get his attention so he could let you down. Sure you enjoyed people touching you, but being grabbed, tugged on and dragged out you kind of wanted to not be touched. You nibble on his finger to try and convey that. Only to be suddenly in a pocket. Your tail hanging out of one end and you can stick your snout through the other. Oh it was his hoodie pocket. It’s actually just as nice as Snas’s hoodie. You could fall asleep, but that would probably be a bad idea.You need to get back to Grillby’s.

“i’ll call him up. he’s probably pretty busy at the moment, so we’ll bring lil squeakers over tomorrow. for now we gotta decide where to put them.” Snas seemed to be dialing a number after he had said that. Kinda seems like an excuse not to bring you back if you’re honest. 

Suddenly the voice of the star skeleton rung out. You could see from where you were his eyes were once again stars and he seemed very giddy. “WELL THE RAT LIKES ME BEST! WHEN I MET THEM THEY WRAPPED THEIR TAIL AROUND MY WRIST. THEY CAN STAY IN MY ROOM!” You didn’t like him best, but you didn’t really have a voice to say how you felt on the matter. If anything you’d rather sleep in a box. You miss your box…

You could see the tall scary skeleton glaring daggers at you. He mentioned that he had a cat so there was no way you were going to his room. Yeah, well you wouldn’t want to anyways, you’d be too nervous to sleep if you were in his room. They mention something about putting you in the cat carrier until they could get you back to Grillby’s. There was some talking that didn’t seem to involve you so you started to let it float through one ear and out the other. 

There was movement and you’re on a firmer surface. Looks like you moved rooms. You’re still in ugly orange’s pocket, but it looks like he sat down. Sticking your head further out looks like they are all sitting down and eating. You could smell that it was Grillby’s cooking, must be the greasy food they mentioned early. You took offence that they called it greasy, but then again, the food Snas usually orders is pretty greasy, and with the added ketchup he sometimes puts on it. Okay yeah you can see why it’s greasy now.  
A fry was put in front of your face and your paws quickly grab it and you drag it into the pocket with you. You could hear someone saying aw and someone laughing. Someone asks this Sans character if you could eat fries and Snas is the one to respond. Who is this Sans they keep mentioning. He doesn’t know you! How would he know!!! You stuck your head out again. Trying to figure out who Sans would be, only for the first tall loud one to pass you a fry. He holds it out a bit further away so you had to hop out of Ugly orange’s pocket to get to it. Soon enough you were on the other tall one’s lap. You think you’ll call him….. Scarf, until you learned his name of course.

“SANS LOOK! IT’S ON MY LAP! IT’S SO CUTE?” You were, in fact on his lap. If you could blush, you pretty sure you would. Being called cute while sitting on someone’s lap is blush worthy, but you can’t really blush and you’re really. Really. REALLY. Into this fry. You kinda wished you had more than just fries, but that’s all they’re offering you so you’ll take it. (But if they offered a slice of pizza you’d drag that thing away as fast as you could before they could take it from you.)

This goes on for the majority of the evening. You running between Scarf and Star. Back and forth. For the fries. You were easily bribed by food. Though when Red tried to get you to jump onto his lap while he was sitting on a different couch you completely ignored him, which seemed to anger him a bit. Good, serves him right for holding you by your tail.

After dinner you were pretty exhausted from running between the two skeletons. It wasn’t long after they all finished they seemed to be engrossed in some tv show that came on right after, some of them fell asleep while watching while the others were so into it they ignored you. Well you’re just gonna hang out on Scarfs lap then. 

As the night wears on they all seemed to be getting up one by one. You’re guessing it’s bedtime, but they seemingly were ignoring you. Leaving you. Alone. On the couch. Perfect time for you to find a place to sleep! Not that you wouldn’t mind sleeping in Stars room, but he was loud and you worried that maybe he was a loud sleeper too? No that’s a lie. You just wanted to sleep near someone who could protect you from the darkness and no offense to Stars, but you don’t think he would be able to handle whatever that thing was. 

If you’re honest. The scary skeletons, Snas and ugly orange were probably your best bets of being safe. But you had to choose quickly. So you choose the closet one. 

Ugly orange. 

You run and slide into his pocket. That seemed to have surprised him enough to stop from standing up fully. He seemed shocked at the sudden intrusion, but you weren’t going to sleep near anyone else but him. Well, unless he passes you off, then you had no choice. He just seems to pat his pocket and stands up. It looks like Stars forgot about you because he never mentioned you sleeping with him as all of them went up the stairs and into different rooms. 

Ugly orange went to a room with a whiteboard that said “Stretching the long ways round” with a terrible drawing of a bone bending. He heads inside and he sits on the bed and you pop your head out. He coaxes you out of the pocket and you sit on a very, messy bed. It was pretty bare. The room was… pretty bare and messy at the same time. You glance up when you hear shuffling beside you and your heart feels like it stops dead. 

One orange glowing eye, a red glowing eye, and a blue glowing eye and the rooms temperature starting to drop. It was as if you were suddenly on trial and these eyes were the judges. 

A voice from the orange eye rings through your ears. “well, you got some explaining to do.”

The holder of the red eye spoke next. “yeah you lil shit. how are you here?”

And finally the blue eye, the voice of someone you were considering a friend. Someone you were starting to trust. “you better talk or you’re in for _A BAD TIME._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmm.... What do Snas, Red and Ugly orange know.....
> 
> If anyone wants to see any other AUs pls let me know, these upcoming chapters may be a good time to introduce one or two.
> 
> As always You can [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/). If you wish for me to see anything, either submit it there or tag it as acrasm on tumblr.


	8. A new place Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol i hate being left on cliffhangers so... here! Also god I can't believe how many people have read this and left comments and kudos. I'm just. So honored? God thank you guys so much! It gives me motivation to write these chapters and post them earlier than I originally plan to. 
> 
> This chapter has not been beta read. Since I have none. So if you see anything, lmk.

You didn’t understand. How could you? What had happened? Just not to long ago the three of them seemed to not have a care in the world. In fact they seemed to even like you, but here. Right now. The three looked like they would kill you if you moved a muscle or said anything they didn’t like. Not like they would understand you. You could squeak and gnash your teeth all you want, but they wouldn’t understand. 

Wait, if you can’t talk, how will you tell them you had no clue what was going on? Maybe you could wiggle your body? That would make you look silly, less of a threat. That would be a good idea! 

But then, with a sudden spike of bravery. You do the only thing you could think of that would portray some sort of confusion. You squeaked. You squeaked a lot. You tried to say words like you’re confused, or you don’t know, but only things that come out are squeaks. Lots and lots of squeaks. You waved your paws in the air trying to convey what you were trying to explain how confused you were. You tried to tell them you knew what was going on, you were sentient, but you had no idea what you did that made them so angry! That’s when you felt it. The cold darkness seeping in. You stop your movements and look past the glowing eyes. They don’t seem to notice it. Unless. Unless they were working together. The darkness spread through the room consuming all light, darker and darker. The only light that could be seen was the glow from the eyes of your judges.

Suddenly you weren’t in a messy room with those three. You were somewhere new. The fear and dread from the other night was building up. 

You gagged. And bent over, expelling whatever was in your stomach onto the ground of the… the cell. You felt like you were in a bedroom before now, but that couldn’t be right. You’ve been stuck in this cell for weeks now. You sigh and wipe your mouth and lean back. A small window let in some sunlight. You sighed, you missed the feeling of the sun on your skin while out with-

Shit someone was coming. 

“Oh _____ are you willing to talk yet?” A deep voice rings out. You glance away from the window and to the bars that cross the entrance. You can see someone standing outside. Their face shadowed, but you knew in your soul who they were. You smiled. Slowly you stood up and walked over to the man, legs taking shaky steps. You haven’t had to use them in awhile. Your hands grasping the bars and a smile spreading across your face, one that made it feel like your face was splitting wide open to show off your teeth, letting out a quiet laugh. 

“I’m willing to talk, but not about what ya want.” You knew you were in danger, but who knows how much long you have. The hand from the man reaches in and grabs your already ripped shirt, pulling you right against the bars, your face hitting the cold metal quiet hard, you cry out in pain at the sudden pull. 

“I don’t care what” static. “Says. If you don’t tell us where they are by tonight I’ll execute you myself.” He let’s go of your shirt and your drop to the floor, laughing. You were laughing as he walked out angrily. The moment he was gone your laughs turned to sobs. You laid there on the floor, your cry’s ringing out. It hurt so much. With very little water and food and sleep you aren’t sure how much longer you can survive on what reserves you had. You wanted it to end, you wanted to be home with your brother, but you had to do this. You made a promise to the king and queen and your friends. You would never betray them. 

You’ll betray your own kind before letting _her_ know where they are. 

You’ll probably die before then, if the general kept his promise to execute you if you don’t talk. You drag yourself over to your corner and and curl up. The sound of fighting can be heard outside, but it was being drowned out by your own thoughts of your impending doom. You just wished you could see them again. At least one more time…”please. Just. Let me see them. One last time….”

“i think we killed it?” 

“oh shut up. they’re breathing. we hadn’t even done anything yet.”

“grillbys is going to murder us.”

You could hear some voices, voices that were not your own, and your own heart. You jolted up and you bared your teeth. Spinning around back and forth. Trying to fight off whatever that was. You won’t go down without a fight. You turn and. Oh. It’s. Red, Snas, and ugly orange. Weren’t you just in a dungeon though? You shake your head and rub your paws over it. The three of them seemed to continue to bicker till you had enough and squeaked at the so they could stop. Your sudden memory, you’re assuming its your memory at least, had given you a terrible headache. It might not have been a good idea to get their attention, but it’s too late. They all stopped and looked at you. After what you assume that memory was, you were in no mood to listen to them fight with each other. 

Though that feeling quickly disappeared when you were lifted and slammed against the wall by an unknown force. The same force that had caught you earlier. You could see a slight red light surround you before the pain hit you. You let out a pained squeak and tried to wiggle out of the invisible force. You could feel the wall behind you. It rubbed against your fur and your skin was stinging. You’re pretty sure you’d probably be bruised under your fur later. That is if you live through this.

You heard someone yell out, or quietly yelled, the name red and you were flung around again and then very softly set down on someone’s hand. You look up and see it Snas. Your fur sticking up in fear and anger. You no longer consider Snas your friend. He threatened you. How dare he treat you like he didn’t just scare you to death. You can hear him sigh and he goes to pet you but when his hand comes close you go to bite it. Teeth bared and your claws dig into his hand. 

“aw squeakers. dont be like that. you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” Snas was talking to you while it sounded like Red and ugly orange were arguing over what just happened. You’re assume it was Red who threw you, the red light that surround you matches his eye lights. Snas sets you down on the bed again. It’s obvious that he could sense your discomfort, or he was uncomfortable with the feeling of your claws digging into his bones. Skin? Whatever his hand was made out of, it felt hard and squishy, it was weird. And by the sound of it Red and ugly orange were done fighting. They all look at you and you can tell they are about to interrogate you, though they still can’t understand you. 

The three of them sit down on chairs that appeared out of nowhere, though it did seem like ugly orange had vanished and suddenly came back. Looking at the three you can tell they were nervous. Snas was rubbing his skull, Red looked like he was… sweating. Gross. And ugly orange lites a cigarette and seems to take a puff. The smoke wafting into the air. The three of them all seemed to sigh at the same time. 

“we know you can’t talk, but we know you can understand us so we’re going to ask you some yes or no questions. you understand me?” Snas seems to be the one leading this. You don’t trust him anymore, because these three may be involved with the spooky voice, but you nod a yes. 

Red speaks next. “do you know who we are.” 

… you narrow your eyes, of course you do. You’ve met them all. You nod. That doesn’t seem to answer what Red wanted. Ugly orange spoke next. Another cloud of smoke filters out between his teeth. 

“did you know any of us before this week?” That was a very odd question, but you shake your head no. You had no clue if you did or not. You still have hardly any memories except those that have pushed their way to the front of your mind. 

“shit do you think we have the wrong person. er… rat?” 

“red, we haven’t finished asking our questions yet. how many rats do you know that can understand us with such clarity?” Snas seems to know what he’s talking about. Maybe it’s not Red who you should be worried about. Maybe it’s Snas. “squeakers. kid. do you know who you are?”

Who. Who you are? You tilted your head. You knew your name, that you had a brother but. That was it. You were falling through your thoughts as the three of them seem to be looking at one another, almost a bit worried. You claw your way out of you blank memory and shake your head no. Your tail wrapping around you and it taps the bed. You didn’t know who you were. 

The three looked at you and ugly orange cursed under his breath. He is the one who asks the question 

“i have one more question. are you going to hurt our brothers?” The room suddenly got cold again. You looked around and noticed that both Red and Snas eye sockets were dark and void of any light. Why would you hurt their brothers? They had brothers? Oh! The other skeletons must be their brothers. Would make sense. Maybe skeletons come in pairs? You shake your head a no. The tense air seems to vanish and it seems like that had calmed everyone down. 

Snas gets up and shoves his hands into his pockets. Red was the next to get up and he shrugs. You’re a bit confused by their reactions. Is… everything okay? Are you okay? 

“i’ll bring you back to grillbz tomorrow. no worries.” Snas vanishes and Red gives you a little glare and vanishes as well. Ugly orange sighs and he pushes the chair and sits down on his messy bed. His hand covers his face and you can tell from where you were, that he looked a lot more tired than he did a few moments ago. Even if those three have lost your trust. Ugly orange looked so. Lonely. You tentatively walk over and put your paws on ugly oranges leg. Looking up you see him look through his fingers and down to you. 

“sorry hon. we didnt mean to scare you or hurt you. i just… we just.” He sighs again and lifts you up and he falls back onto the bed, setting you down on his chest. You flatten yourself out on his chest. It was surprisingly comfortable. You even felt ugly oranges finger run down your back. 

His cigarette hung from his mouth as the smoke slowly faded into the darkness. His chest rising and falling softly. “you just reminded us of someone we knew once upon a time.” 

Something about that statement tugged at your soul. They. They knew you? Or at least knew someone like you? This was. You had to know more. If. No when you get your body back, you’ll ask them. It’s too late in the night now though. Ugly orange seemed to have fallen asleep in the past few minutes since he had last spoken. You petty much become a pancake and close your eyes. He may have lost the small trust he had gained from earlier today, but you felt safe with him still. And that was your last thought. Until.

“PAPY. WAKE UP YOU LAZY BONES! IT’S TIME FOR BREAKFAST.” There was large banging on the door and you jolted up and ugly orange- papy? You like ugly orange better, he chuckled and sat up. 

“yeah yeah blue. give me a sec.” You’re picked up and set down on the bed and ugly orange walks around the room for a bit, you weren’t paying attention. You were stretching out and did a quick cleaning. A hand then sits in front of you. Out of habit you hop on it pretty quickly. 

“let’s get some breakfast and sans will bring you home.” WHO IS SANS?????????? 

Once second you’re in ugly oranges room and then you’re in a new room? How. Wow! How did you get here? Crazy! Ugly orange sets you down on the table and you can see everyone you met last night. Red and Snas look half asleep while sitting at the table, Stars and scarf seem to be setting food on the table and. The tall scary skeleton seemed to be glaring at you. 

“GET THAT FILTHY THING OFF THE TABLE!” Rude. You’re clean. No one moves to pick you off the table.

“boss. they aint doing anything. they’ll be gone before you know it.” Boss. His name was. Boss. And he acted like this? So not only is he scary, he’s arrogant. Fantastic. 

All the loud skeletons were talking to one another as the food was finally all set out. Scarf even set down a small bowl of eggs and banana for you. How sweet! This was such a different breakfast routine than the one you had with Grillby. It was. Nostalgic. You’re not sure why, but maybe what Ugly orange said last night was true. Maybe you did know them. 

Stars, scarf, and tall scary all got up and cleared the table and were saying goodbye. Something about going to work. Both Stars and scarf gave you a few pets before they said goodbye and they were gone. Now it was just you, ugly orange, Snas, and Red. 

“alright sans, grillby is probably expecting you.” Ugly orange spoke out, a little louder than he has spoken. Maybe because Sans isn’t here? Wait.

“yeah no worries stretch i got em. come on ratty. lets get you home.” Snas picks you up. Wait. Is Snas really Sans? Have you been calling Sans the wrong name in your head this entire time? Wow, you’re sure glad no one could read your mind, how embarrassing. 

“be back eventually.” Sans smile seemed lazy and you wave goodbye to ugly orange, or stretch you guess, and flick your tail at Red. The world around you warping into black and then. You’re in front of Grillby’s bar. Sans seems to send a text and the door suddenly flings open. There stands Grillby. His fire burning quiet bright. You were then passed over to Grillby. It didn’t take very long for you to be pressed close to his face and you reach your paws out and lick his cheek. You didn’t mean to, but your instincts seem to have taken over. His face though. It was. Warm. 

“Thank you Sans…” His voice was quiet, but you can hear the worry being melted away. Grillby held you near and you eventually took your rightful place on his shoulders. 

“no problem grillbz. they must have been asleep on me when i took a shortcut. didnt mind the stowaway.” Sans winks at you. You wish that you trusted him still, but you don’t. So you felt a bit awkward. “though paps and blue really liked em and since they refuse to come to your place. you mind if they occasionally come home with me?” 

That was such. A weird request. Even Grillby seemed to be a little thrown off. He glances down at you then back to Sans. His head shakes for a no. “When I go on my trip you and your brother can care for them, but I’d rather them… Not leave my side.”

Oh. You felt. Touched. You really wonder if you could blush. Grillby was too good for you. 

Sans shrugged. “yeah no problem. just tell me when, maybe can pay me for it?” You hear Grillby’s fire crackle in a bit of an angry manner. “yeah yeah. just a joke. take it out of my tab.” And with that he was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I'm not that big of a fan of the ending? But I wanted a sweet reunion with Grillby. But oh boy! We know a bit more about ourselves! And we might possibly have known the skeletons before! Wow! 
> 
>  
> 
> As always You can [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/). If you wish for me to see anything, either submit it there or tag it as acrasm on tumblr.


	9. Who dis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol sorry for the long wait. I went home for the weekend for my moms Bday and had a lot of studying for an exam im pretty sure I failed. Lol.  
> (im still surprised how many people are still reading this ohmygod)  
> I have also added a new fic series to this where you can read POVs or whatever people request about the acrasm word [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16095785/chapters/37593425)  
> Oh one more thing! I am writing another undertale fic. It's gonna be just as angsty and something I haven't really seen done before. So the update schedule will turn to be each fic updates every other week.

Life had gone back to normal. Well, as normal as it had been before that voice appeared. Grillby kept a closer eye on you and he even took a few paint- no photos. You learned what those things on the wall were photos. Apparently he had no photos of you before and wanted to add you to his wall of them, and post one up in the bar downstairs. You’ve unofficially officially became the animal mascot of the bar. Well that’s what you’re assuming, you think Grillby could be his own mascot. After all you found out the bar was named after him after all. Which you kind of thought was pretty cute. 

Life was back to being simple, predictable.. comfortable even.

Sans occasionally came by. As usual. But you no longer ran to greet him. You swore the first night he came by he looked slightly disappointed that you didn’t run right for him when he sat up at the bar, but it could have been a trick of the light since when you looked closer he looked his same smiley self. It kind of made you angry. He should feel bad, he never fully apologize. You only had one apology and that was from ugly orange, or er. Papy? Stretch? You kinda like just callin him Orange. He’s the only one who truly apologized to you. He was on the do not trust list still, but he didn’t hurt you, or betray the budding friendship like Red and Sans did. You don’t mind Red not apologizing, he still scared you with those teeth. But Sans? It kind of hurt that he didn’t even try to explain himself or apologize on his own.

So he gets the cold shoulder. From you at least. Grillby probably would too if he knew exactly what went down. In fact you aren’t sure if he knew what happened, he sure didn’t act like he knew. But you’re pretty sure that Grillby would be dead if his shoulder was cold. You’re now imagining Grillby being made of ice instead of fire. Would his name be coldby instead? That would be odd. You would not stick around on his shoulders if he was.

Tonight it seems like Sans was in a pretty normal mood. He called Grillby over and you just closed your eyes and pretended that he was not there. It was a one sided conversation though. Grillby hardly spoke when he was working. Allowing either his customers to just drone on about whatever, order, or that one red bird to talk for him. You liked that bird monster. They could read Grillby at a pretty good accuracy. You felt the movement away from Sans usual seat so you open your eyes. That’s when you noticed something. 

You should have noticed earlier. You’re not sure how you missed it. But there they were. Those three terrible, terrible skeletons. You can tell they weren’t looking your way so you shot each one a glare. Except for the taller one. You honestly weren’t sure how you felt about Stretch. Sure he threatened you, but it’s not like he tried to hurt you like Red, or betrayed your budding friendship. Well no. He did kind of ruin the start of a friendship. 

Ug emotions. You’re pretty sure if you were a normal rat you wouldn’t have to deal with this bull crap.

Grillby served the three of them, but you pretended to be asleep. If you can avoid them, you were going to. Though you could hear Grillby actually speaking to the three. He hardly spoke while working! You wonder what it’s about, but focusing on what is being said now would make you confused. Like watching a movie in the middle with no context, so you decide to just allow them to have a semi private conversation. Luckily it didn’t last long. They ordered after the conversation had ended. 

After that it was a fairly normal night. After the three traitors left you went around as usual. Hung out with the dogs, the rabbit. Pretty much all the regulars that liked you. By closing time you were already curled around Grillby’s shoulders and fast asleep. 

Your dreams were swirls of skeletons, the sound of metal hitting metal and a soft voice that sounded like your brother was whispering to you that you were safe and that as long as they were there you won’t ever get hurt again. It felt like a distant memory. The dream had a very nostalgic feeling to it. When you had woken up you felt off. You shook it off quickly when Grillby picked you up instead of waiting for you to join him in the kitchen. He scratches under your chin and you notice he was in the same outfit he had worn when you first met Stars and Stretch. Oh! You guys were going out again. 

You were kind of excited to go out again. You’ve noticed that it had started to snow recently. People came in with snow on their shoulders. You wonder if snow hurts Grillby. Hopefully he will be careful while you guys go out. 

“We’re going to meet someone today…. try not to let him know you’re here.” Grillby sounded a bit worried. Oh? Who were you meeting. It kind of seemed like Grillby didn’t want you to meet whoever this person is, but it’s not like he’s leaving you behind either. You suppose you’ll stay hidden in his scarf again. Which is fine with you. It probably will be the warmest part to hide if it was cold outside. Maybe Grillby didn’t want to go alone. Or maybe he didn’t like you to be alone after the last scare. You don’t blame him. You became a bit more needy after that. Anyways, it was time to go.

—————————————-

You had somehow fallen asleep since you left the bar. You are now in what looks like to be a very different bar, the smell was similar but you could smell something else. Something that you didn’t like. 

Blood. 

You stuck your head out slightly to see where you were. It was a different bar, but it was empty. Well, almost empty. You can feel the heat coming off of Grillby, but you felt heat coming in waves from the other side of the room. You quickly hide back into the scarf. You can feel Grillby moving. The heat from the other side of the room coming closer. 

You hear crackling. A voice similar to Grillby’s, it was slower a bit deeper, raspy. It didn’t sound like Grillby’s where his is unused, but this other voice sounded more like they had used it way to often and had caused damage to their vocal cords. It kind of scared you. It seems that they were greeting each other. You heard Grillby’s name and then someone Named Fellby? But the unknown voice corrects him and says Forge? Maybe it’s another fire monster. 

How odd. You’re seeing a pattern. Skeletons coming in pairs and fire monsters owning bars. Unless this is just a coincidence. You aren’t sure. It feels all too familiar to you. Like familiar as in you’re back at Grillby’s, but with more stress and intimidation added. 

“You know the rules Flint, we bring no one but ourselves. That idiot Embers is already trying to bring someone with him. Just cause you got to keep yer name doesn’t mean you get special treatment.” It was the deeper voice, they sounded a little mad.

There was silence and you could hear Grillby crackle a bit more. “... I cannot leave them at home. They need to be with someone.” That someone being him you’re assuming. 

“Well too bad, you’re the one who made this rule. Fire elements only. Yer the one to make this shitty rule.” You can sense the tension in the room growing, you wanted to run. But you knew Grillby asked you not to come out of hiding. Maybe this was related to the trip that Sans offered to watch you during. Oh. OH. You didn’t want to be watched by him. 

“Ya can ask Embers and Ignition, but ya know they’re going to say no.” The conversation seemed to drop. At least the parts you could understand. It seems the two were talking in that weird language that sounded similar to the one Grillby spoke that night you were being crushed by darkness. You didn’t understand it so you curled up around Grillby’s neck and closed your eyes. You let sleep take you once again. It seems to be a new habit of yours to sleep more often than not. It’s only slightly worrisome to you, but you remember a bit before that you never slept this much before.

Maybe it was because you were a rat and not. Human. 

But you felt that maybe something big was brewing that has yet let itself be known. You don’t dwell on it, for now you let the sound of Grillby and Forge speak to one another without you eavesdropping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmm more of a light hearted chapter after the last few. I swear we will spend more time with the skeletons. I just needed to write how rat will since you know. They're a rat and living with Grillby. lol 
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) If you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm or you know, submit it or ask me things. You can bother me there. (it also gives you an look at what i do between chapters)
> 
> And I also have made a poll! [You can Vote here](http://www.strawpoll.me/16564249) Edit: i messed up and put no AUs as two options. read "we have enough AUs" as a different au then listed
> 
> Edit: to make the notes even longer. The Grillby nicknames  
> Undertale - Grillby or Flint (only Forge calls him this to annoy him)  
> Underfell- Forge  
> Underswap- Embers  
> Swapfell red- Ignition


	10. Something new

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmm Once again sorry for the wait. I'm home for fall break and had been working on an essay thats worth 15% of my grade....  
> [I also drew a bunch of rats in costumes that could be taken as rat in... costumes?](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/178750228083/technically-its-just-a-bunch-of-rats-but-any)  
> Anyways thank you all so much for the continuous support for acrasm! I'm like so honored people are reading this and still are! please enjoy!

After the trip to Forge’s you found yourself in quite a predicament. Grillby seemed to be stressed out more than usual and had been making a lot more mistakes on the floor. Usually he is as close to perfect as you can get. Well when dealing with monsters, the human patrons still are a bit on the shitty side, though the ones who seem to have become regulars seem less likely to make a scene or get mad when Grillby accidentally forgets their order or messes up their drink. You wonder if maybe it was whatever he and Forge spoke about that caused this distress. 

You wish you were taller so you could help. The most you can do is lick his chin when he seems stressed out. It made his flame burn a little brighter, but that was all. 

You hate to admit it, but you thank god for Snas. Er. Sans. No Snas he doesn’t deserve his actual name just yet. 

Snas, even though from what you can tell from his visits, is incredibly lazy. He brought some teenanger into the bar, at least you think they are a teenanger? Their name was Frisk. Snas suggested that this Frisk helps Grillby out till he sorts out whatever was going on. Grillby at first seemed incredibly reluctant to allow someone else to work with him, but Frisk seemed to keep coming back as the week progressed. Grillby caved on day three and allowed Frisk to work with him. It made things a bit easier on Grillby. So you are giving Snas one small point to gaining back your favor. 

Out of one thousand points of course. Can’t make it easy for the mean skeleton. 

You kind of liked Frisk. They would bring you treats from somewhere else they always smile at you. You’ve never seen them speak before, but Grillby hardly speaks while he works. Instead you see Frisk hands moving quickly or they write something down when it does require them to communicate. Frisk also seems to get along with everyone, humans and monsters, so it made the transition of them working there easier. Supposedly they were just going to be working for Grillby till things calmed down for him. Or they had to go on another trip. You found out from the Red bird that Frisk was the monster ambassador. You don’t know what that means, but you’re pretty sure that means they are important, so working at Grillby’s bar seemed pretty underneath them if anyone asks you. Not that you’re complaining. You liked Frisk. 

If only you knew why Grillby was so stressed, you could have avoided what was to come. 

Snow was falling pretty heavily outside. You sat at the windowsill. It was fairly cold sitting so close to the glass, but with Grillby in the room your back stayed fairly warm. Watching as the snowflakes land on the ground gave you such a strange feeling of nostalgia. You kept getting strange flashes of your brother and someone who you could not make out. The two of them outside running and playing in the snow. You could almost see them clearly outside the window. It hurt trying to focus on them. You must have been really into the hazy memories that when you felt Grillby’s hand wrap around your body it startled you. You let out a very startled squeak and squirmed around in his hold. 

“Sorry ____. But it’s time to go.” Grillby sounded a little sad. Go? Go where? It’s snowing to hard outside for it to be safe to go anywhere. But maybe that didn’t matter to Grillby. Maybe the cold didn’t bother him? Or hurt him? Water could so wouldn’t snow like it is outside hurt him? 

He continues to pet you as he moved around the room. You see a weird one plastic box with your blanket and one of the toys he recently got you. You only play with said toy when Grillby plays with you. But it doesn’t make sense. Until Grillby sets you down in the box. He pets you again and then it’s dark. He closed it! You could see out the little slots on the sides where light filters in, you stick out a paw and reach out. You were… stuck. The box suddenly started to move. You can hear the sound of something rolling and the crinkling of a bag. Down the stairs and suddenly it was very cold. You quickly bury yourself into the blankets. Fighting off the cold as much as you could. 

Luckily it didn’t last long. You can hear the metal moving thing Grillby has used to get around start up and you’re moving again. The ride was quiet, and you wish you could look out the windows. You wanted to see how much snow had landed on the ground. Too bad you couldn’t. Too bad the ride was short. Too bad you became cold again. 

You can hear someone knocking and the tapping of feet running to a door. Where were you? 

“OH IF IT ISN’T THE ORANGE GRILLBY. WHY IN THE WORLD YOU COME HERE?” You can hear a voice that sounded like Stars and Red mixed together and made a child, you really need to think of some new nickname for Red so he can be in the same boat as Snas though. 

Grillby was quiet for a bit and you can hear him ask, in a quiet voice, if Sans or Papyrus was home. That’s when you made the connection.

The stress Grillby was under, the offer Snas gave a week ago, the bags being packed. Grillby was leaving for something, possibly with that guy named Forge, and he was going to leave you.

Leave you alone.

Leave you with a bunch of skeletons.

Leave you with one that has hurt you, one that had betrayed you, and one that helped question you but apologized. 

You couldn’t. You couldn’t stay here! You’re in danger here. You couldn’t breath. The walls of the box. No. Your cage. was closing in on you. Your chest felt tight and your claws dig into the fabric. You try to calm yourself. The feeling of the fabric, the cold biting at your tail. You can’t. You can’t. 

You can’t. 

And suddenly your warm. At first you were confused because all you saw was red, but you can hear Grillby speaking and… Scarf? Oh yes thank goodness it’s Scarf. You liked him. You preferred him. He has been the nicest skeleton, other than Stars, but you like Scarf a little more. You wiggle around and you pop your head out of the blanket you were wrapped in. Glancing around you see Scarf across from you and the warmth coming behind you means it’s most likely Grillby. 

“OF COURSE I’LL WATCH OVER _______ FOR YOU!” Scarf seemed as energetic as always. Grillby seemed to have calmed down from what anxiety he seemed to have had. He pets your head and passes you over to Scarf. He then passes over a list that you can’t see. Grillby pets behind your ears and gets up. 

“..... I’ll be home in two weeks. Please…. watch them carefully.” You can see he was tense again as he says goodbye and leaves. Something in your chest aches at the sight. It seemed vaguely familiar. Like it had happened before. As if this wasn’t the first time you were left alone.

You aren’t alone this time, but your heart hurts. 

“OH DON’T BE SAD RAT FRIEND. YOU’RE WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS! YOUR TWO WEEK WITH ME WILL BE FILLED WITH FUN PUZZLES, ADVENTURES, AND FOOD!” You glance up to the tall skeleton and you believed him. You hope that he isn’t like his brother and betray the trust you start putting into him. 

“ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO WATCH OVER SUCH A FILTHY ANIMAL?” Oh, you forgot about that voice. It was the mixed voice. You look for it and find. 

Stars. But also. Spiky shit, er that scary tall one. You hate how you’re comparing all these skeletons to each other, but you can’t help it. They are all so similar. 

“YES BERRY I PROMISED GRILLBY I WOULD WATCH THEM. PLUS THEY ARE SO SMALL I’M SURE THEY WON’T BOTHER ANYONE. AFTER ALL THEY’LL BE WITH ME THE ENTIRE TIME! A NEW FRIEND FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” Oh god. Scarf, er papyrus? Is so sweet. He is a cinnamon roll. Thank you Grillby. You are so thankful Grillby put you in the care of someone who is nice. 

Berry seemed to have gotten a bit angry at that and said a few things a left. You kind of want to call him…. Corp top. He was wearing one. You’ll call him that instead of Berry. For now at least. 

“WELL…. THAT WENT WELL!” Papyrus stands up while holding you and walks over to the kitchen. “SINCE THIS IS YOUR FIRST NIGHT HERE AND IT'S MY TURN TO COOK, YOU GET TO MAKE SOME FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI AND REGULAR DINNER WITH ME! I SAW THIS MOVIE RATATOUILLE SO YOU CAN HANG OUT ON MY SKULL LIKE REMY DID!” What was the difference between friendship spaghetti and regular dinner? 

What. What’s a ratatouille.

The two of you go to the kitchen and Papyrus sets you on top of his head and he starts pulling things out. Pots, pans, different items you assume are for the spaghetti. Wait. Is that. Is that sprinkles? Does that go into spaghetti? You never seen Grillby make it and you can’t really remember any food other than the stuff Grillby has made. So you are definitely confused. 

You pat your paws on Papyrus’s skull as he moved around the kitchen. Setting everything up on the counter and pulling out a very large knife.

“OKAY RAT FRIEND. TIME FOR US TO MAKE SPAGHETTI!!!” You see him raise the knife high and…. he smashed it into the tomato. It gets everywhere. Including onto your nose. You lick it off and well. Papyrus seems to be moving quickly and you couldn’t focus too well on what he was doing, but you can definitely smell something burning and something else that’s smells heavenly. Whelp. Dinner is going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know how to end it so... Cooking with papyrus it is. Also Frisk and berry make an appearance! Nice.  
> For clarity:  
> Forge- underfell grillby  
> Berry/crop top- swapfell (fellswap???? idk) sans
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm
> 
> I am still taking votes on what AUs you guys would like to see added. [You can Vote here](http://www.strawpoll.me/16564249) I messed up and put no AUs as two options. read "we have enough AUs" as a different au then listed


	11. A night with Scarf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm slowing down my updates if you haven't noticed. School has been kickin my ass this week, especially cause I went home for break and my schedule since then has been all over the place. Anyways. Enjoy this chapter.  
> This chapter has not been beta read so if you see any problems please lmk and I'm sorry if anyone is ooc. I am very rusty at writing enthusiastic characters...

Dinner with Scarf is interesting. No. Interesting was such an understatement. Making dinner with Scarf was captivating. It was hard to look away, even if you could hardly keep up. Though you wouldn’t necessarily call it cooking. At least not the spaghetti portion. You’d call it an experience. There was tomato all in your fur and you’re pretty sure that you had some piece of noodle up your nose. You can feel it in there and you keep trying to pull it out, but with how fast Scarf is moving around it’s pretty hard to balance on his smooth skull and try to get that noodle and clean your fur. 

Honestly, it was pretty fun. 

Scarf also made something else. You couldn’t see exactly what it was because when he was making it you had some of the spaghetti sauce in your eyes. It stung like hell and was an absolute pain to clean. You definitely needed a bath after this. Or at least a good hour by yourself to self-clean. Which you had a feeling they Grillby gave directions to Scarf that you were not allowed to be alone. Which you suppose is fine. It’s not like Papyrus knows you’re… Whatever it’s called. Awaken? Sentient. Who knows.

“ALRIGHT LITTLE FRIEND THAT IS JUST THE FIRST NIGHT OF MANY OF BONDING THROUGH COOKING AND OTHER ACTIVITIES.” Scarf picks you up off his head and holds you in his gloved hand. If only you could smile, you would be smiling just as big as this bag of bones is. It’s very contagious. Scarf is now your second favorite behind Grillby. He has taken his spot. He even pets you behind your ears. He’s also the only one who hasn’t done anything bad to you, other than Grillby and Stars but you still aren’t too sure about Stars.

Scarf carries you out of the kitchen and he sets you down in the crate that Grillby brought you in. He then leaves you alone for a while, but you can hear him. The sounds of plates being set down and then you can hear his voice very clearing and quite loudly. He yells out the word dinner and you can hear one very loud set of footsteps that rush down. Followed by another and then a third. You heard them before you saw them.

Stars, Spikey shit and that Crop top skeleton. Huh, you wonder why you never saw Crop top the last time you were here, but if you’re honest you’re glad you didn’t. He sounded just as mean as spikey shit and he gave off the same feeling of danger that Spikey shit did. 

You see Spikey shit pass your crate and give you no mind. Next was Crop top, he seemed to care very little. Then. Stars. He stops in front of your crate. His eyes are well. Stars. He reaches down and pets you. He smells a bit like oil. Actually very similar to how Grillby smells, but more earthy? What. Why?

You see something black smudge on his cheek and he walks away from your crate. Rude.

You stood on your back paws and looked at the main table and saw everyone. The trio of terrible skeletons, the two edgy mean ones, Scarf and Stars and. Another edgy looking one? He has a dog collar on just like Red, no you were gonna call Red fluffy, on account of his fluffy jacket. It also made him sound less intimidating. How did those four get down here without you seeing them? Maybe it was like how you and Snas appeared at Grillby’s bar without even walking outside of the house. 

Or maybe Stars distracted you. 

Anyways you were standing on your hind legs. Was someone going to bring you food, or was someone going to pick you up again? And with that, a certain sunshine skeleton comes back over and picks you up. He brings you over to the table and sets you down in front of a smaller plate. It’s about the size of Scarf’s palm. On it was the spaghetti he made. It looked better than it smelled. There also was some sort of pinkish fish and peas!!!! You love peas.

You don’t remember the last time you had peas, but you knew you liked them.

Everyone suddenly seemed to be talking. You hardly paid attention. You were more into the food in front of you. Delicious food. You hadn’t eaten since Grillby and you left his place a few hours ago. It tasted amazing. You even took a bite out of the spaghetti. It… Was kind of burnt? But also undercooked. Yet it could have tasted good if it wasn’t like that. Maybe when you are larger or can be understood you can let Scarf know.

Your thoughts were rudely interrupted by the yelling match Crop top and Spikey shit were having. It seems they were standing up and yelling at each other over. Something. You don’t really care. You just want to eat your food and get clean. Scarf and Stars seemed to have joined the argument and now it’s a four-way yelling match. You were a bit annoyed till you heard your name threw into the mix, which in turn you stopped eating completely. Was the fight about you? The four of them were talking too fast and loud for you to try and piece together what everyone was saying. But looking around the table it looked like the trio and the tall version of red, the one with his style at least, looked pretty bored. They all continued to eat and drink. 

Condiments. 

That still grosses you out every time you see them do it. (And you have eaten things off the floor!) 

You can tell someone was watching you, the weird feeling of being watched itched at the back of your mind. But who was it? It could not be any of the loud skeletons since the four seemed to be very into their conversation, but would it be one of the quiet ones? You glanced around the table again, only this time Snas was asleep. So it wasn’t him. Red was looking like he was dozing off. Nope. Ugly orange was watching Star, so it couldn’t be him. You pegged it for the other tall skeleton you didn’t know. Yet when you looked at him he was staring down at his food quietly eating. 

So it wasn’t anyone at the table. So who could it be? You had a nagging feeling that it wasn’t a malicious stare like how it felt like the early days of living with Grillby. No, it just felt. Familiar, but in a kind way? Weird? You can’t put it into words. You hope the feeling passes, you aren’t too fond of it right now.

The feeling stayed with you until dinner was over and you were picked up again and set on Scarf’s head. Which is fine. You like feeling tall. The only problem with it is how fast he moves. He moves faster then Grillby does and sometimes you wonder if he is defying physics. Then again he is a skeleton. Maybe physics doesn’t get along with monster magic? Who knows. Anyways, he and Stars seem to be the ones cleaning dishes and they happily spoke to each other. Their voices still loud, but not as loud as usual. Just super enthusiastic, yet a bit upset. You hate to eavesdrop, but you’re literally on Scarf’s head so it’s not like you can leave to let them have this private conversation. 

“PAPYRUS… HAVE YOU NOTICED ANYTHING. ODD ABOUT OUR BROTHERS BEHAVIOUR LATELY?” How can one skeleton sound so concerned yet loud at the same time? 

“SO YOU’VE NOTICED TOO… SOMETHING IS UP BETWEEN THOSE THREE AND I WISH SANS WOULD TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG.” Scarf set down the plate he had been washing and you can feel his skull lean down a bit, you had to grip onto the smooth surface with all your might so you don’t slip into the soapy water. The two of them seemed to have slowed down what they were doing and you can hear Stars sighing. 

Glancing over you see Stars rubbing the back of his skull. “NO MATTER WHAT I DO STRETCH DOESN’T SEEM TO SMILE AS MUCH ANYMORE. NOT EVEN THAT TERRIBLY FAKE SMILE HE MAKES WHEN SOMETHING IS UPSETTING HIM. SOMETHING MUST BE EXTREMELY UPSETTING TO HIM.”

The conversation was making you a little sad. Was something wrong with Snas and ugly orange? You hope it wasn’t your fault. 

“SANS IS DOING THE SAME THING! I WISH HE WOULD TALK TO ME. BUT HE NEVER TELLS ME WHEN THING ARE WRONG. I WISH HE COULD. BUT ALL WE CAN DO IS SUPPORT OUR BROTHERS AND HOPE FOR THE BEST.” Scarf finishes up washing the dishes and handing them over to Stars. The conversation continued but you were no longer paying attention. You’re going to be here for two weeks. Maybe, even if you don’t trust Snas and are a bit scared of those two, maybe you can figure out what’s going on. You’re small and you’re sure that Scarf won’t have you with him the entire time so you can do some investigations. 

It's going to be a long two weeks.

Stars leaves the two of you alone and Scarf picks up your items and the two of you go up the stairs. You assume to his room. On his door, you see a sign that says “Papyrus only.” Aw. That’s cute. 

The door opens and it looks like a regular room. Very roomy! You notice that there was a table of action figures that were moved to the side and he sets your carrier down onto it. 

“WELL WELCOME TO MY ROOM! OR SHOULD I SAY OUR ROOM FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS.” Scarf picks you up off his head and sets you down on the race car bed. You kind of run around on it. Your paws felt very sore from not moving much today. 

You hear a weird noise. Sounded like someone saying Nyeh. It sounded a little cute? You look over and saw Scarf watching you. So you run over to the edge of the bed. And jump. Scarf quickly catches you and you hear that weird noise again! 

“NYEH HEH HEH HEH! I CAUGHT A JUMPING FRIEND!” He lifts you up so you were near his face. Okay. You like him. Scarf is an absolute sweetheart. He is your number two. You gotta. You have to. 

You reach out your paws and lick his chin. It tasted. Like calcium. Kinda tingly too. Almost like when you “kiss” Grillby. It must be the magic they have. You hear an audible gasp though. You glance up and you can see that Scarfs smile is wider than you had ever seen him smile. Then again you’ve only seen him twice, but you really like it. It definitely brightens up the room more than anything you’ve ever seen. Except for Grillby. He lights up your world. 

You…. Did you really think that about Grillby? Oh jeez. Oh no. Is that gonna make things weird for you? Oh god.

You suddenly feel a little weightless and then something soft. Looks like Scarf set you down on the bed. You turn around to give him a questioning look only to see bare ribs. And oh god is that his pelvis??? Why is he naked?!?????

You quickly turn around on the bed and kinda pretend that you don’t know what was going on. Something kinda rough and bumpy grabbed your middle and you were set in your crate and then the lights were shut off. Your night vision was pretty good so you can see Scarf moving around and then you hear the sound of fabric rustling and you stand a bit higher and see that Scarf is in bed. He turns on the light next to your carrier and you see him pick up a book that was near your carrier. Looks like he was going to read. He starts to read it out loud. You were curious about why he was reading it out loud. He then turns the book to show you the pictures.

Oh! He was reading to you! How sweet of him. Even though he was usually loud he seemed to have quieted down to read to you. 

It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep. Even if there was an uneasy feeling nagging at the back of your mind. 

Your dreams seem to match it. As the world had vanished into the darkness, a different light appeared. 

You were at home. With your brother and a girl. The three of you are laughing at a joke your brother told you. Your brother and the girl keep glancing at each other. Giving each other the eyes. You knew it well. In fact, you had a feeling the two liked each other! You even spoke to your best friend about it. Your best friend wasn’t listening to you, but that not the point. You had a plan to get these two together!

Even if this girl didn’t like monsters, you wanted your older brother to be happy. Maybe you could convince her that monsters aren’t that bad! You knew you could change her mind. Too bad you never had the chance to. Not after what she did. What she did to your brother. What she did to you. What she did to Him.

You wake up. You’re on the floor and very, very cold. You raise your paw up to your head to rub it only. Your head felt different. You run your paw over it and then bring it down. Your…. your paw is a hand? You’re human again! You stand up very quickly. The room suddenly spinning and you fall back down. Your body is so sore and weak feeling. You’re rubbing your bare back, somehow the cloth that was in your crate was covering you? Then you hear a voice. A very sleepy sounding voice.

“____? DID YOU FALL OUT OF YOUR CRATE?” It’s Scarf. He’s sitting up and rubbing his eye sockets. He looks in the general area where you were. Frozen in your spot you don’t say anything. Something colder than ice wrapped around your wrist. You forget about Scarf and look down at the thing that wrapped itself around you. It felt oddly familiar. 

No. NO! It’s the darkness! The creepy voice! It’s after you again! You go to alert Scarf only for something cold to cover your mouth. It felt like a very, very, cold hand. 

“Aw ____ don’t alert your new guard dog.” The voice wisps into your ear. But it seems that it didn’t matter.

Scarf turns on the light near his bed and he looks straight at you and then behind you. You hear something behind you and the sound of the wispy voice making a pained noise and it vanishes. Scarf stands up and kneels down in front of you. The light eliminating behind him makes him look a little intimidating. His hand is outstretched to you. 

Carefully you put yours in his and he helps to pull you up. And you notice how much taller he looks. Even in your real body he is enormous. He then says something you’re very surprised to hear. 

“GRILLBY DID WARN ME ABOUT THAT ODD DARK MIST AND YOU BUT, I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD TRY ON THE FIRST NIGHT!”

What. 

What.

WHAT?

“W-what?” Your voice comes out strained, a little quiet. Sounds like it hasn’t been used in a very long time. You were still holding onto Scarfs hand so you quickly let go and wrap the blanket tighter around yourself. You were slightly embarrassed because you were naked. But you are also very uneasy about this whole situation. 

“DON’T WORRY. THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT LOOK BELOW YOUR SHOULDERS! THEREFORE I’LL LET YOU BORROW SOME OF MY RAD CLOTHES UNTIL WE CAN GET YOU SOME OF YOUR OWN OR YOU TRANSFORM BACK! GRILLBY DID MENTION LAST TIME YOU TURNED BACK WHEN YOU FELL ASLEEP.” Your head was swimming. From that memory of your brother, the voice coming back, having a human body, and the fact that Grillby told Scarf-er Papyrus about the thing hunting you and the fact you had a human body.

Though you hardly remember becoming human in front of Grillby, you do have a weird memory of him petting your head. Ug. This just hurts your head. 

Papyrus goes over to his closet and pulls out some clothes. Passing a shirt and shorts your way. Which you quickly pull on, after Papyrus turns around. The shirt had just a bone on it. It was kinda cute. But Papyrus’s reaction makes you pretty curious about how old he really is. Sure he’s tall but you assumed from what you saw that he was probably pretty young, but he is showing a lot of maturity here. Huh. 

Once dressed Papyrus sits on the bed and pats the spot next to him. You awkwardly sit beside him. You’re not sure if you should say anything or not. 

“WELL. IT WAS ABOUT TIME I WOKE UP ANYWAYS! WHY DON’T YOU SLEEP IN MY BED AND I’LL WAKE YOU UP WHEN BREAKFAST IS READY!” He pats your head and stands up, he grabs some more clothes out of the closet and walks out of the room. Leaving you all alone. You’re sure that after Papyrus scared away the voice that you’d be safe to sleep again. You lay down on the bed and turn of the light. Looking up at the ceiling. Yawning you curl to the side and curl up on yourself. The soft scent of pine and spaghetti fills your nose. It’s weird, but you like it. 

It did not take long for you to fall asleep again. This time your dreams full of skeletons and a voice speaking in a language that you could hardly understand, but it felt friendly. A very nice change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! This is my longest chapter yet. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm
> 
> I am no longer taking votes for the new AU, but Horrortale has won! Maybe in the future, I'll add more. who knows.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am just honestly. So... emotional over how many people continue to read this and leave such kind messages and leave kudos. I honestly thought no one would read my fic and I just.... Thank you. Hope you enjoy!

You felt. Weird again. Off, just. Not right. It was very similar to the first night you woke up in your rat body. Back on that slightly chilly night where you had such a vacant area in your brain. But now you were warm, surrounded by something soft and you still had the memories you’ve regained. So that is something. You yawn and open your eyes. Hands moving up to wipe at your face only. It felt soft again, fluffy even. But it couldn’t be your hair. You were touching your face. Wait. Soft? Fluffy?

No. 

No, come on it can’t be. 

You struggle out of whatever was wrapped around you and you glance around. Everything was large again. Even the bed was huge. No no no. You can’t believe it. This is terrible. You had your real body and you remembered it. You could remember feeling larger and solid. You felt like you were going to cry. That is if you could. You felt like you were robbed of something. Something you should have had. It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair.

It was not FAIR.

You just didn’t understand, sure you were slightly content with being a rat. It felt wrong, but you didn’t really have any reference of why it felt wrong. As long as you had Grillby you felt like everything would be fine. But now… now it felt wrong. 

You felt wrong. You felt off. Everything just didn’t feel right. 

Your head hurt but so did your chest. You don’t understand what’s going on. Maybe it had to do with why you can’t remember anything or maybe the wispy voices or even that general. Or possibly your brother? Jeez, everything was so confusing. Why did this have to happen to you. Were you bad in a past life? Were you bad before you were a rat? Is that why you were in that cell being threatened to be executed. No. No, you knew in your soul that what had to land in that cell was because those people who caught you were bad, not you. But this can’t be right. None of this can be right. You weren’t right. 

If you could cry you’re pretty sure you would be crying you can feel the burn on your chest from the feeling. You curl up on top of the clothes you once were wearing and hold yourself tight. You wish your brother was here to comfort you. You wish that Grillby was here for you and spoke to you in that strange crackling language that calms you down. You wish Scarf was in here to give you one of his infectious smiles. Honestly, you wish Snas was here too Actually. Anyone you knew right now would be nice. Any of the skeletons would be nice….

You don’t like being alone, not after your time in that cell. It had given you a fear of being forgotten. If only you could call out for someone. But you knew nobody would come. You’re alone now. 

You’re as alone as the day you awoke in those woods. 

The door slams open and it startles you out of your self-pity party. You lift your head up to see a smiling Scarf. Oh, thank the Stars. He can distract you from your feeling of hopelessness. 

“OH! ____? WHERE DID YOU GO?” You see Scarf look around his room and you let out a very loud squeak, one of the loudest you’ve made. It startled even you. Then gloved hands picked you up and you’re face to face with the smiling Scarf. You kind of jump off his hands and onto his face. You kind of slide down a bit and land in his scarf. You twist your body and your tail flicks Scarfs face and you get comfortable. In fact, you can wrap your tail around his neck very easily and curl up. It may not be as warm as Grillby, but it will have to do. If you could speak you’d say thank you. You know how futile it is to try and speak. But you do so anyway.

A simple squeak comes out instead of the two words. “WELL, YOU’RE VERY WELCOME SMALL ONE! NOW COME ON IT’S TIME FOR BREAKFAST AND THEN A FUN FILLED DAY! SINCE IT’S THE WEEKEND AND I DON’T HAVE TO GO IN FOR WORK!” Weekend? Huh, well you have lost track of what day is what whole living with Grillby. You only knew a general time when he works and doesn’t. But you suppose having a fun-filled day with Scarf would be nice. Would definitely remove the sadness of losing your body for the day at least. 

You push Scarf’s scarf down a bit so you can look out. It was hard to maneuver so you don’t fall, but with your tail wrapped around his spine if sure does help to keep you stable. You two head to a room with a trombone on it. Scarf knocks very loudly and seems to be calling for Sans to wake up and that it was breakfast time. You hear some mumbling and the rustling of blankets. Scarf knocks again and eventually he does give up and you two move downstairs.

There is food set out on the table, but you notice that the places that Crop top and Stars spots are empty. Could possibly mean they already ate or have left. But those at the table include Ugly orange, the weird ugly orange fluffy mixed skeleton, and Spiky shit. So that just left…. Fluffy and Snas. Which you’re honestly fine with. 

“UG WHY WOULD YOU BRING SUCH A GROSS CREATURE TO THE TABLE. I THOUGHT AT LEAST YOU WOULD KNOW BETTER PAPYRUS.” The way Scarfs name was said by spiky shit sounded harsh. Almost as if it was an insult. How dare he! You bared your teeth at him, only Spiky shit seems to growl right back. It was enough to scare you to hide back into Scarf’s er Papyrus’s scarf. 

“I WILL NOT HAVE YOU SPEAK ABOUT OUR GUEST THAT WAY!” 

“IT’S AN ANIMAL!”

“____ ISN’T AN IT. AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO EAT WITH OUR GUEST THEN YOU CAN TAKE YOURS AND REDS PORTIONS UP TO YOUR ROOMS.” You blink. Spiky blinks. Everyone in the room just. Blinks. 

It was silent then Spiky sits back down and starts to eat. That was. Interesting. 

You were fished out of Papyrus’s scarf and set down in front of the small plate in front of you. The food on there is very similar to the food Grillby would make you. Nice. You dig into the eggs and assorted vegetables and fruits. Now you kinda know what they were talking about last night. You had a feeling Spiky was saying nasty things about you and Stars and Papyrus probably we’re trying to defend you. That. Actually made you feel nice. Oh man, how nice of them. 

As you finished your food you notice Snas and Fluffy coming down to join you all. They both look incredibly tired and worn out. They sit in their chairs and very sleepily start eating. Snas says thank you and Fluffy just falls asleep in his chair. Spiky looks like he was about to say something but looked over to you. You tilted your head and he closes his mouth. Or teeth? Closes his teeth. That just sounds weird. Anyway, it looks like what Papyrus had said had made Spiky shit not want to talk.

Good. He’s mean anyways. And kind of scary but, you won’t admit that out loud. 

Papyrus seemed to have grabbed his empty plate and then lifted you up and set your empty plate on his. 

“ENJOY YOUR DAY EVERYONE. ME AND THE SMALL RAT ARE GOING TO BE OUT TODAY!” With that, he turns to the kitchen, washes the two dishes and puts them away. Then you two walk outside into the cold. You try to warm yourself up by curling up but instead you’re lifted up and you were deposited back into his scarf. Nice. Your honest to god favorite spot on these guys. 

Papyrus continues to walk until you come up to a small little cabin, it was quaint, one story at least and there were some things that looked like traps and what not laying around. Papyrus promptly enters and sets you down on a very soft couch. He then goes and tells you that this was his and Blue’s workshop for puzzles. Since it was easier for them to set things up outside while working in here. Made sense to you. He also told you that someone named Berry and Edge used it as well. Then someone also named Crooks. You are not sure who any of these others are but you’re assuming it’s the skeletons that you gave nicknames too.

You really need to figure out everyone’s names. 

Papyrus seems to have quieted down and was starting to work on something you couldn’t see. The softness of the couch and a full stomach was lulling you to sleep. You’ll just. Close your eyes for a few moments. Nothing wrong with that. Then you can explore the cabin a bit. 

Yeah. Explore.

….

Wait. You suddenly bolt up and you are no longer on the couch. The floor beneath you is cold and hard. You look around and there are large walls around you. You can smell food and. Where are you? 

“ALRIGHT _____! I CREATED THIS MAZE LIKE PUZZLE JUST FOR YOU! OR WELL. NO NOT JUST FOR YOU BUT YOU’LL BE THE FIRST TO TRY IT! I CALL IT THE MAZE FOR CHEESE! YOUR GOAL IS TO SOLVE SEVERAL PUZZLES AND YOUR PRIZE IS A BLOCK OF CHEESE! GO AHEAD!” 

You look around and stand up a bit on your hind legs and see Papyrus looking at you. He looks very excited. Well. 

Guess you’re about to solve some puzzles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, if you aren't following my blog you don't know, but I'll be doing weird pauses between each chapter now. One of my 8 week classes started and its a paper a week on top of the fact one of my classes requires huge papers (cause I'm a history major we have lots of papers lol.) So idk when I'll be able to update again, but I thought I'd leave off with some angst and then some fluff.
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm. You can even ask me questions about any of my fics.  
> Anyways thank you so much for reading!!!


	13. Puzzles and Something Else

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! As I said updates are gonna slow down. I did stress write this tho so apologise. If you see anything that seems weirdly said or misspelled lmk.

It felt like forever. 

Your paws hurt, your head hurts, and you kind of just want to take a nap. But you didn’t want to disappoint Papyrus. And he looked so excited with every obstacle you pass, but you were tired. Probably because you were pretty lazy due to how much you lazed around on Grillby’s shoulders when you weren’t running around the bar or the upstairs. Though even then you weren’t in the best of shape it seems.

Then again it’s been five hours of running through all these different mazes and puzzles. Levers and pulleys. Things you have to push, buttons. They weren’t hard puzzles, well some were hard, but most of them were simple enough you only had to do a few steps. Right now this puzzle in front of you has you stumped, possibly the hardest one you’ve done. It’s the last one for today. Today. Meaning there are more planned tomorrow, but you know once you finish this you can finally take a nap. Or maybe eat. Maybe both? Lay down and eat. Make yourself a pancake and bring food to your mouth. 

Plus the cheese you were given for completing puzzles wasn’t as filling as you would have liked. 

“COME ON FRIEND! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!” You glance up at Papyrus and nod. Glancing around the large area that the maze led into. There were holes, a few parts of it was raised and it looked like another maze but one where you had to squeeze your body through small spaces. The first thing you did was press a button and you saw the gate leading into the puzzle open. You lift your paw and it closes fairly quickly. You press your paw down again and walk a bit till your back paw was on it. You moved closer and closer and your tail holds it down. You were close to the gate. 

Tail pressing down on the button you rush through the gate and you rush through. Your tail almost getting smashed as the gate closed. Scary. 

There’s a small hole in front of you. Well no it wasn’t small, it was fairly large enough that you could get through with no issue. You then go through that hole. Then. A smaller hole? And…. a smaller one. You got to the point where there was a lever and an even smaller hole. The smaller one you couldn’t fit through. So you pull the lever and. 

Nothing happened. 

You do it again. And again and again and again and again. Nothing was happening. You let out a very angry squeak. You can hear Papyrus’s laugh so you assume you did something wrong. So you went back through the holes and tried to find anything else. Maybe another lever. A button. A pulley. Anything? Then you see it back in the very first area. By the gate, there was a hole that could fit your paw. It’s. Very small. You don’t know how Papyrus could make something so small like that, but you’re gonna assume magic. You stick your paw in, and you feel something. You tug on it and you hear a click. Pulling your paw out you run through the holes again only to notice the room with the smaller hole had a wall missing. You run through that wall and….

Shoot. 

You’re at a dead end.

And this goes on for another half hour, running through the holes and pulling the lever and sticking your paw in the weirdly small hole. You couldn’t figure out how to get out. You’re at the point where you just plop down on the ground. You have given up. You’re done. You hear someone sigh and you just flattened yourself more, paws stretching in front of you and your tail laying flat behind you. Kind of like a pancake. Gloved hands pick you up and he scratches your chin and offers you cheese. You refuse. No more cheese. Please. You had enough cheese to last you a lifetime. (well maybe you’ll have some later, but not today. You do crave chedder….) You want fries.

Please Papyrus, give me fries.

It’s only been a day and you miss Grillby’s fries. You miss your bed. _You miss Grillby._

You turn your head from the cheese and you can hear Papyrus sound of being upset from your rejection, but it didn’t last very long. Good, you didn’t want to disappoint him more. You already felt like you had let him down since you couldn’t figure out this last puzzle. It seemed so easy, but it didn’t make any sense once you ran through it. You wanted to apologize to him that you couldn’t pass it, but you also are not sorry. You’re sleepy and full of cheese.

Another hand covers you and it’s slightly dark. You can feel the cold hit your tail and you quickly pull it to your body. You hear a door shut and the crunching of snow. If you weren’t so cold you probably would enjoy listening to it. You have a feeling that before this, before you were a rat, that you enjoyed watching people play in the snow and the deafening quiet that it could bring when it piled up too high. A memory of you and your brother running around in the snow and playing with the girl from the last memory you had and your best friend who…. is still incredibly fuzzy. It made you feel nostalgic. 

Warmth fills you, both inside and out. The hand above you is removed and it’s the living room. You glance up to Papyrus and yawn. You didn’t mean to yawn, but you couldn’t help it.

“OH. YOU MUST BE TIRED! I GUESS I CAN LET YOU NAP. JUST DON’T EXPECT ME TO ALLOW YOU TO DO THAT EVERYDAY! CAN’T HAVE YOU BECOMING LAZY.” Papyrus waggles his finger at you and brings you up to his room. You’re set down into the crate and you quickly burry yourself into your blankets and there was a quiet laugh and a door shutting quietly. You do not know why you are so tired. Well no. That’s a lie you did know, but what you don’t understand is why you’re tired so often. Is it a rat thing? Because you have a very faint feeling you did not sleep as often as you do now. Maybe it has to do with the fact you turned human and it's your bodies way of regaining your strength. You cannot be too sure. But enough about that. It’s nap time.

\-----------------------------------------

The sky was a burst of colors. Pinks, oranges, and purples. The sun was taking its time to set. Crickets started to chirp and the croaking of frogs can be faintly heard. Something was disturbing the quiet night. Yelling, clanking of metal, one person heavy breathing and the sound of footsteps hitting the ground hard.

It was you. You were running. Petals float behind you as you weaved through the trees leaving a faint trail. You should have dropped these flowers by now. You should have listened to your brother. Your foot gets caught in a vine and you stumble, and the flowers you were holding onto dropped from your hands and left a pile of broken stems and lost petals. If you weren’t running you would think it would be a good metaphor from something.

“There they are!” Head whipping behind you, you forget the flowers and run faster. Your heart was pounding in your chest. Just a few more feet. A few more feet and you would be safe. 

One.

Two.

Three.

Fo-

You were jerked back. Someone grabbed your arm and pulled hard. Their grip was bruising and the pull made you stumble. No…

NO.

NO.

_NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!_

“LET ME GO!!!” You tug your arm trying to get away from the soldier. His face distorted and dark. You couldn’t make it out. Something is extremely wrong. You pull your arm harder. You’re yelling for your brother. For the one you were bringing the flowers to. For anyone who was willing to help you.

You kick at him, you try and fight your way out, but your strength is weakening. Shit, they had a mage in their group. The man who grabbed you starts to drag you back, your safety was just out of your grasp, teasing you. You were so close! This can’t be how you get captured! This can’t be how _SHE_ gets you. No. 

No.

Please, you don’t want this. 

You didn’t want to be one of their soldiers any more! You wanted to be free! You wanted to be with your brother and your friends. You know they were going to interrogate you, possibly kill you once your usefulness came to an end.

Tears welled up in your eyes. Your vision blurring from the tears. Stars shining down on you, judging you, watching you. How could this had happened? You had been so careful since the start of this damn war. It can’t end here. Not like this. Your free hand reaches out into the dark, towards the now darkened destination you were so desperate to reach. You hope that he heard you. You hope he is getting help or warning everyone. 

You were still struggling, but it was becoming harder and harder to move. This wasn’t right. This was injustice. It was wrong. Everything was wrong.

You were fading, darkness crept into your sight and your tears flow down your cheeks. You hear yelling and someone calling your name. The last thing you see before it all goes black is your friend. Someone you trust your life to. 

Someone you betrayed your own kind for.

Gaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow Didn't expect to actually write more of Rat's history, but it just... Happened. Anyone surpised? Anyone call it? lol I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm. You can even ask me questions about any of my fics.  
> 


	14. Stars Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back at it again with another chapter before we start I have some fanart to share  
> Both of them were done by wingsofivory on tumblr, I'm still shook that anyone even wants to draw anything for this fic since well. the reader is a rat  
> [Judgement Scene with extra](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/179463801268/wingsofivory-you-feel-judged-you-dont-know)  
> [rat and Gaster](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/179370604538/fan-art-for-the-ao3-fic-cursed-rat-and-some)

Your throat burns and your eyes sting. You felt like you were going to scream or possibly you already were. Light blinding you as the darkness ebbed away. You blink, the stinging continuing. Your paws reach up to rub your eyes. They felt wet as if you were crying. You honestly weren’t sure if you could cry as a rat still, but with how your eyes felt you might have been. After rubbing your eyes you rub your throat a bit and then you grab the arm that was grabbed. 

What a weird memory. What triggered that one was lost to you. Then again your memories seem to come to you randomly and with no trigger. You rub your head. God, you hated this. You hated this so much. You kinda wished you didn’t have any memories at all. Back to the beginning. So you can be blissfully unaware of whatever your past was. 

But this is life and you don’t always get what you want. 

The door suddenly was kicked in. The hinges making a painful noise of protest and there stands one of the skeletons. One of the loud, over the top skeletons. Eyes full of stars and a blue bandana wrapped around his neck. Smile wide and almost contagious. 

Ah, it’s Stars. 

“GET UP! IT IS TIME!” You were scooped up by Scarf and the world was moving fast. Stars was running fast. Where was he taking you? You may not be sure where you’re going, but you’re sure it will be a good distraction from your memory of Gaster, but if Stars is anything like Papyrus, then you’re gonna be very exhausted by the end of this. 

“NOW I KNOW YOU CANNOT SPEAK BUT! BUUUT! I HAVE SOME RIDDLES MIXED WITH PUZZLES THAT I HAD SET UP!” Oh god, not again. It’s only been a few hours since your last huge puzzle, please not again. 

Stars is running down the stairs and almost running straight into Ugly orange. Stars almost ran past him but a hand shot out to stop him. “whoa there bro. movin a lil fast there huh? got some place to be?” You squeak a bit, a way to say thank you. Sure he isn’t fully forgiven, even though he said sorry you’re still mad at him, this gained him some points. 

“YES! I DO HAVE SOMEPLACE TO BE, WITH OUR HOUSE GUEST!” His hand moves up and you are facing ugly orange a bit better. “WE ARE GOING TO THE HI…. I MEAN WE ARE GOING TO GO… OUT! ON A WALK. YEAH, A WALK! NO NEED TO FOLLOW ME STRETCH!”

You look back at Stars, Ugly orange, well Stretch (But he doesn’t deserve to be called by his real name yet. He’s ahead of the other two, but you know….), also was looking at Stars. The two of you giving him a look of, ‘is that seriously what you’re going with?’

“well, snow problem bro. have fun on your walk, but are you sure you wanna trice it?” A pun? Was that a pun. 

You hear Stars groan a bit and you’re kind of with him on that. It was an okay execution, but otherwise. Why? 

Stars walks past the offender only to be stopped again. You kind of just sit in Stars hand and wrap your tail around his wrist. He keeps on stopping suddenly and you keep jerking and almost falling out of his hand. You’re not into it and you’d rather be anchored with your tail wrapped around his wrist.

“aw come on blue, i think it’s too cold for _____ out there. they don’t have clothes or the high tolerance to temperatures like we do.” Ugly looks at you and winks. Did he know you would be really cold outside? Did he know that Papyrus worked you down to the bone from the earlier round of puzzles, sure you aren’t as tired anymore but your brain hurts. Maybe he knows. Probably not. He probably is trying to save you from going back outside and into the snow. “they’re here for two weeks anyways. got a lot of time in your hand before they gotta go back.” 

Two weeks still seemed to be too much time around these skeletons if anyone asks you. 

“but that’s just my suggestion. it would only be ice if you listened to my suggestion.” 

You could feel your soul escaping you. The two of them continued to talk, Ugly shooting off puns about snow, ice, and the cold, all while Stars gets angry and grumbly. Both of them seem distracted and you were getting a little antsy. So you do what you usually do with Grillby. You jump. 

Right off of Stars hand and right onto the banister, you start to slide down it and get to the bottom where there was some round thing. You hear Stars letting out a startled noise and Footsteps behind you. Oh! OH!!!! This could be fun. You slide down the spindle, that’s the part that connects the rail to the stairs, and you’re off! You are running across the hardwood floor, going where? Who knows! You’re gonna play a game with these two. Not only will it help you ignore the weird memories and your worried thoughts away from Gaster, but also you’ve done this in Grillby’s bar, the dogs enjoyed it, so why not? It’s better than doing these riddles Stars had planned.

If they were anything like Papyrus’s you wanted no part in that. 

You're making little-scratching noises as you run and you can hear Stars behind you telling you to stop. You don’t hear a second pair of footsteps so you assume that Ugly isn’t gonna go for you. Fine with you. The game could be between you and Stars. Maybe it will tire him out so you don’t have to do these riddle puzzle hybrids he was talking about. 

You squeeze under the couch and sneeze. It’s dusty and smells like old socks. The smell is gross, but you’re enjoying the chase. Looking behind you there is a blue hand reaching for you, so you skitter further to the center to the couch. If you could laugh you would. It was suddenly very very bright. You blink and the couch is no longer right on top of you. You turn around and see Stars holding one side of the couch up. 

He lifted the couch. 

Stars had lifted the couch up as if it was nothing. 

You blink. Stars is looking at you with well. Huge stars in his sockets.

“CAUGHT YOU!” You bolt. Between Stars legs and to the dining room. Running running running. “HEY!!!! WAIT!!!”

Stars is following you again. You do hear a weird laugh. “MWEH HEH HEH!” Sort of like Papyrus’s, but, mweh? How. It’s a weird sound.

Oh, shoot he’s on your tail! Paws hitting the ground you run faster, you pause to look for a place to run up. The only thing in here was the table, so up the leg and onto the top. Stars stands on one side of the table. You move to one side, he follows suit. Back and forth, back and forth. You see an opening and dash for it, aka behind you. Diving fast to go back to the ground something wraps around your body. Your paws flail around as you try to escape. A squeak of protest from the end of your game. 

“I FINALLY CAUGHT YOU! WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME?” You were maneuvered around and you were looking into Stars eyes. “I MEAN YES IT WAS FUN, BUT WE HAVE THINGS TO DO!” 

Nooooo. You don’t want to do those riddle puzzles. Or whatever they are. Can’t you just. Do rat things and play with the toys Grillby brought over with you. You slump down while in Stars hands. He looks a bit disappointed, but then he looks all happy again. Quickly running out of the dining room and you see Papyrus shortly after. 

“OH BLUE! I SEE YOU GOT _____.”

“YES! AND THEY DO NOT WANT TO DO THE PUZZLE RIDDLES I HAD MADE. SO I HAD AN IDEA, WHAT IF YOU AND I WENT TO YOU KNOW WHERE AND MAKE SOME NEW ONES WITH THE HELP OF ____. MAYBE THEY CAN TEST OUT THE SMALLER MODELS WE MAKE?”

Papyrus gasps and claps his hands together. “WONDERFUL IDEA, _____ ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT THE SECRET PLACE. I TOOK THEM THEIR EARLIER!”

The two continue to talk and you kind of. Zone out. Their voices loud and a bit obnoxious, but it sounds like you’re going to watch them work on these puzzles together. Well, it sounds boring, but probably would be better than sitting around here where snas and fluffy could find you easily. So pairing up with the two skeletons who have never harmed you would be a much better option. 

The three of you go back outside into the snow. Papyrus asking Stars how his morning shift at the gym went and Stars relaying how it went. Well, that makes sense, why Stars, er… Blue. Why Blue was gone earlier and how he was able to pick up the couch. Maybe skeletons were just… crazy strong? You don’t think a human could lift up a couch as easily as he had. 

Once again you were in the cabin that you had been in earlier. You were set down on the couch and Papyrus and Blue head over to a table and start talking to each other and you can hear papers being shuffled around. The two of them in their own world, leaving you free reign to the cabin again. Well. Guess you can finally explore. 

Clawing your way down the side of the couch you walk across the floor. There was a small kitchen that looked empty, a closed door that you squeeze under the door of and notice it’s a bathroom, one room that had a tv and a ton of posters and DVDs on a shelf, and lastly another room that has a bunch of Spiky things and traps. You assume that room is for those two edgy skeletons. Spiky shit and crop top most likely. You’re… kind of glad you haven’t interacted with those two or crop tops brother. Whatever his name was. You think someone called them mug? Mug sounds right….

You go through each room, taking your time to look around. You find a few mouse holes that you crawl into. The insides of the walls were freezing though, so you didn’t stick around there very long. You come out through a different hole and notice you’re outside. No wonder it’s so cold. You look back at the cabin. Then out into the frozen wonderland. You didn’t hear those two call your name. It wouldn’t hurt to talk a little walk. You’re sure it would be fine. 

It will be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I uh.... Didn't know how to end it sooo. yay? If you see anything worded weird or anything like that pls lmk! I do not have a beta.
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm. You can even ask me questions about any of my fics.  
> 


	15. You Were Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey i got some more.... Fanart to share!
> 
>  
> 
> [A possible future scene](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/179708437098/a-cursed-rat-and-some-monsters-chapter-1)  
> [Someone drew me and the skelletons nicknames!!!](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/post/179737616813/did-i-say-science-nope-some-fan-art-for-you-you)

How could you have been so wrong.

It will be fine you had thought. Nope! You were horribly wrong. So terribly horribly wrong.

The snow wasn’t that high when you left but by now you are pretty much wading through snow that you have to lift your head above to be able to see. But the snow is rising faster and faster and the temperature seems to be dropping, the sun has long since set and you were lost. Your paws were frozen and your tail was starting to hurt. You tried to listen for any sounds of the skeletons calling for your name, you even tried turning around and going back the way you came.

But everything looked the same. And your trail led to a dead end since your paw prints have been covered by snow not long after you left. 

You just wanted some fresh air.

An adventure.

But it turned into a snowstorm with you being lost. You’re also very hungry now. You only had breakfast and so much cheese. 

Cold, lost, and hungry. 

You let out a breath and you can see it. You shake your head then sit up on your hind legs, trying to see if you can find any cover for the night. You heard an owl hoot about 20 minutes ago so you knew you weren’t safe out here. God, why did you decide to come out here. You’re an idiot. A big fucking idiot. 

Wait. You see something!!! You smell something!!!!! 

You duck back down and run through the snow. You come up to a hole. You can smell…. spaghetti? It’s probably frozen and that’s kind of weird, but the ground inside the hole was clear of snow and you set your paw in and if feels fairly warmer than it is outside. It probably isn’t a good idea but….

You walk into the opening, it was definitely warmer than outside. You step further in and suddenly there was a large crashing noise and you turn around and you see the opening now is closed off. You rush over and put your paws against the bars. It’s a cage.

You walked into a trap. 

You really are. A fucking idiot. 

At least you won’t freeze to death. Not to mention it’s such an enclosed space you probably will be safe from the whispering voice that’s been haunting you. So. It probably won’t be that bad, even if it’s uncomfortable.

Maybe it’s one of the traps set up from whoever made the one outside the cabin Papyrus and St- Blue was in. So you probably will be going by one of them! Probably not tonight, but hopefully in the morning. You curl up tightly around yourself. Your tail wrapping even tighter. You sit in a corner and close your eyes.

Dark, quiet, behind bars. It reminds you too much of the memory of being in the dungeon. You start to shake. From the cold? From being behind bars? You aren’t sure, but you are uncomfortable and you keep shaking. You were so stupid to come out here alone. Why did you do that. You hope you don’t freeze to death. Grillby would be so sad and alone again. You didn’t want him to be alone again. You didn’t want to die alone…

You don’t want to be alone. 

The silence is deafening…..

You were moving. There was light streaming in through the opening part of the cage. Oh, you must have fallen asleep. You lift your head and look around. The cage was still covered by something but you were definitely moving. You can hear someone humming. It sounded like… PAPYRUS!!! He found you!!!!! Oh, thank goodness! But… He also sounded off, maybe it’s just one of the taller skeletons, you hope that it was at least one of them and they knew who you were. 

There was then a door in front of you and inside you go. It… Does not look familiar. The scent was very different as well. It smelt… Like decaying leaves, stuffy and….. And. Oh god. That’s the scent of blood. You moved over to the opening and tried to see what was going on. Why did it smell like blood and decay? This was definitely not the skeletons you knew. Who were they? You feel the cage drop on something and you quickly ran to the back of the cage. The gate opens and a gloved hand reaches for you. You squeak in protest and bite it. Only to find. 

Shit. It is a skeleton. You didn’t feel the give of skin and flesh when you dug your teeth in nor did the hand flinch. 

You were scared. You ran. Right out of the cage and onto a counter. You hear a gasp from above you and you see a very terrifying version of Papyrus. Whoever they were, they were scarier than spiky shit and shit. With jagged flat teeth that look more painful than sharp teeth. He had a scarf similar to Papyrus’s but… the ends were covered in something darker and there were a fair amount of holes and tears. If you weren’t so scared you would have stared at him. 

But you were scared. 

Your paws on the cold counter you run. There are a few large knives and clumps of stuff that you cannot and will not dwell on. Your paws were becoming wet and sticky from whatever was covering the counter. You can see a cracked window. It was high above, but the bricks would be easy to climb since it looked poorly put together. Running faster and faster you try to reach the ledge. You jump. 

The protruding brick is right there, you can grasp it and you can make it out. Away from this terribly smelling room and away from whoever that spooky skeleton is. Unfortunately for you, the spooky one grabbed you. The gloved hand you had bit is holding onto you fairly tight. You can’t even squirm out of the grasp. The only thing you could do was squeak loudly and thrash your tail. Try and make yourself seem more threatening, even though this skeleton probably has seen more scary things than a rat trying to escape. 

“WHY ARE YOU RUNNING? I WAS JUST GOING TO FEED YOU….” The skeleton spoke. You’re gonna call him spooks for now… Wait. Feed you? Why would he feed you? You thought he was going to try and eat you! This whole room looked like a murder room. But he was going to feed you?????

You’re so confused. 

“BLUE TOLD ME THAT A RAT OF YOUR DESCRIPTION WAS LOST. I’M SO LUCKY THAT YOU FELL FOR ONE OF MY TRAPS. THOUGH IF MY BROTHER FOUND YOU….” 

You look up at him, head tilted. So this skeleton knows Stars. Stars told him. Well. That’s nice of him? He brings you over to a sink and turns in the water. You look down at your paws

Red.

They were red.

Oh god, you were running on blood. 

You get your heartbeat speed up. You were having a hard time breathing. Oh god. Oh fuck. This was blood. No. NO. Calm down. It’s…. it’s not your blood. It’s not yours….

Something wet and warm was rubbed against your cheeks, and then your paws and tail. You blink, the blood was being wiped off. Spooks was cleaning off the blood. Oh. Okay yes. This. This is much better.

You then were set back down on the counter, but this time on something warm. It was a blanket. Nice. The tall skeleton puts some apple slices in front of you. You grab one and munch away. Thank god it wasn’t cheese. You may be hungry but you aren’t going to eat more cheese. You are cheesed out.

You do not crave that cheddar.

You look up from your food and notice that Spooks, that’s what you’re going to call him, was struggling to use that weird device that you can sometimes hear voices from. The box-like thing that you’ve seen Grillby face your way and make you look at him. What strange decides. Oh! Looks like he figured it out though. He’s talking to someone who is also. Very loud. Spooks talks about you and you’re guessing that he’s telling whoever the other voice is that you’re okay. You go back to your apple slices, munching away. 

You hear a sigh and you look back up to Spooks. You can get a better look at him. He doesn’t look that scary now, he just looks. Big. Kind of a big skeleton that could harm you, but you didn’t sense any danger from him. So…. all good?

You wonder though, when will you go back to the other skeletons. 

“THIS IS TROUBLESOME. THEY CANNOT COME AND GET YOU TILL LATER. HOPEFULLY BEFORE MY BROTHER COMES HOME.” 

You take a few slower bites of the apple. A bit curious, but it’s not like you can voice your curiosity. You just squeak to let him know you heard him. You yawn, the warmth and a full belly felt very nice. Sure the smell was still nauseating, but you’re warm now. 

You hear a door slam and a deep voice. Probably the deepest you’ve heard. You look up to Spooks and you can see his hands are rubbing against each other in a nervous way. He seemed a bit tense. Then he bent down to look at you. It looked uncomfortable with how tall he was.

“PLEASE TRY NOT TO MAKE A NOISE…. SANS IS NOT A FAN OF ANIMALS WE CAN’T EAT.” You tilt your head, but it’s not like he knew you understood him so you decide to go along with it and not make any squeaks. He lifts the box and you were set up on some very high shelf. You pop your head out to look. Spooks said it was Sans who was here, but that voice was too deep to be Snas. Someone walked into the room and you hold your breath.

It was…. a very large version of Snas, but with a hole in his skull. You can see directly into it. The dark blackness. His skull was empty except for a very slight glow. Red. It was a red glow coming from the hole and the socket that was on the same side. His smile was the widest you’ve seen on any of the skeletons. He reminded you of a nightmare you might have had as a child. He was terrifying.

He was Terror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... everyone guessed that it was not gonna be fine, but hey some new skeletons. How do you like their nicknames? Lol. I've had this scene stuck in my head since the horror bros won that poll I had put up.... like... Chapters ago. But thanks for reading and your continued support!!!!
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm, send me a message or submit somethin. You can even ask me questions about any of my fics or suggestions for a side scene!  
> Till next time!!!!


	16. Bedroom exploration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As mentioned in Side character. I will be on a weird hiatus from november 28th-december 18th. I'll still be around just.... probably wont post many chapters

Your heart was pounding against your chest. You quickly duck back down. You were sure if you weren’t a rat, anyone could hear your breathing. Or even your heartbeat. You moved to a corner in the box. You were high enough that he couldn’t see you, but you still feared that if you made a noise or moved too much he would spot you and it would be the end of you. 

“hey bro. saw you brought one of the traps back. catch anything good?”

“UNFORTUNATELY NO…. I HAD TO BRING THE TRAP BACK IN BECAUSE THE BAIT WAS TOO OLD!”

“oh. well, guess you gotta bait another one.” 

“SANS!”

“oh come on papyrus. you fell into that trap.” 

“UUUUUG. SANS! JUST!!!! GO CLEAN UP YOUR MESS FROM LAST NIGHT! I’M MAKING LUNCH!” 

There is a huff and a door opens then shuts. You hear some noise of things clinking and clanking and then the box jiggled and you were facing Spooks. He looked sorta sad. It’s weird that you can pick up on these skeletons moods just by looking at them. One of his hands is lifting up and you can feel the tension coming off in waves. Two very sharp phalanges scratch at your head. Very softly and hardly touching you. Well. Okay. He must be nervous. 

Seeing the very small smile as you chitter in happiness. Spooks then moves away and moves around the room. The smell was still bothering you, but you were too scared to leave the room. That other skeleton, who you are going to call Terror, might find you if you leave. Something tells you that running into him would be more dangerous than being left alone with the three who had questioned you. 

You watch Spooks make something. He had pulled something out of the cold box that held food and you were not sure what sort of meat it was, but it was definitely meat. You can smell it. Spooks was then chopping some vegetables and that's when you noticed a pot that was boiling. Maybe he’s making soup? That would make sense with what he had fed you with. 

Spooks looks at the box and then back to the only door. He lifts your box up and you’re on the move again. The door is pushed open quietly and you get a better look at the area. It’s like the cabin that Papyrus and Stars brought you to, but the scent of blood was fairly strong and it looked like it could use a bit more decorations. It was fairly barren. It looked loved in, but at the same time as if no one had been living here for a while. 

The floor creaks as Spooks heads up the stairs. You can hear the sound of one of those squares that show people and monsters alike doing things on them. Each noise Spooks makes he stops and glances behind him. It takes a good five minutes before you are at the top of the stairs. After that, it was a short stride and you’re in a new room. This one smelling. A lot better than the rest of the house. The box was set down on a bed. It kind of reminded you of Papyrus’s, but a lot bigger and a lot more pillows. 

There was a lot of soft items on the bed from what you can see inside your box. You see a pair of glasses set on a desk next to a ton of little-stuffed animals that look like they’ve seen better days and there were also a ton of action figures. Huh.

“YOU CAN STAY IN HERE TILL SOMEONE COMES BY TO PICK YOU UP! OH, YOU CAN PLAY WITH ANY OF MY ACTION FIGURES! JUST DON’T CHEW ON ANYTHING!” Spooks goes to pet you again, but seems unsure so instead leaves the room. 

Well.

You’re alone again. 

You hopping of the box. The mattress not even reacting to you jumping on it. Which. You admit you do a few times. A bunch of little tiny jumps. Haha. That was fun? And you warmed up as well. It was nice.

After hopping around like a rabbit for like a good while, you climb up to the table with the figures on it. You sniffed at them and then you sniffed at the other toys. Everything smelt. 

Weird. 

Clean? No. No, it just smells. Off.

It’s weird. You just can’t decide what exactly it is, but you keep scrunching up your nose at the smell. So you scurry down the table instead. Looking around you find a closet. Do you dare crawl under the door to snoop. Do you?  
No, you shouldn’t. It feels wrong to look through other people’s things. Even if you want to.

Instead, you climb up the desk and make your way over to the closest window. There you look out into the world. Feeling nostalgic as ever whenever you look out a window and into the world. 

Last time you did this you had a memory pretty much resurface. Maybe you’ll get another one to make itself known. 

You watch some birds hop about in the snow and nothing else. It was quiet. The entire house was quiet. It was so quiet that it was loud. Your thoughts swirling in your head like thunder. A reflection of everything that has happened so far. Living with Grillby’s. Being intimidated by the three skeletons that you still haven’t forgiven. Though ugly orange kind of is forgiven? You never spent time with him before that, unlike the other two. 

Memories of everyone you’ve met since you’ve become aware. Thinking about the memories of your past that you do have. That girl, the general, the monsters. 

Your brother.

Your best friend Wing dings Gaster.

You wonder what happened to everyone. It’s obvious that they aren’t around, but you wonder what happened. When did you turn into a rat. Why did you turn into a rat? What happened during your time locked up. 

Who was the voice that was haunting you. 

Fuck this was making your head hurt again. Just like when you first tried to remember anything. Guess it’s time to stop thinking about it too hard. Maybe focus on surviving until you can be back with Grillby. You still had a full week and at least 5 more days to go. It was going to be a long time before you get to see Grillby again. You’re actually slightly worried. It’s only been two days and things already went south. 

You usually could spend hours looking out a window and into the snow, but your anxiety just wouldn’t let you sit still. You kept fidgeting and your tail whips about a bit. You turn away from the window. A sudden feeling of being watched washes over you. You look back out the window, but nothing had changed. Slowly you turn back to the room and leap off the window and onto the floor. The feeling was still crawling on your skin. 

Shaking your body you climb back up onto the bed. Glancing around you hop on the bed again. 

Hehe. 

Yawning you hop over to the pillows and curl up. You might as well sleep. Though. There’s definitely something watching you and it is making you incredibly uncomfortable. Oh! You know. You uncurl and push under the pillows. You were between some of them and you can curl up a bit better. Now your back was covered and if anything came for you, you can see them coming through the slight crack between the pillows. Stretching your little paws in front of you, stare out into the empty room. 

Warm, comfortable, and semi-safe, you allowed your mind to wander again. Maybe you’ll have another memory? Though hopefully not as drastic as your last one. 

Surprisingly, the world melted around you and you’re in a much brighter place. 

The pillows vanished and were replaced with bricks and a loud room. The language is strange and yet you can fully understand it. You were no longer laying down but sitting at a table. In front of you is Gaster. He’s talking in that strange language. You’re nodding and only half listening. He’s complaining about something the king had asked him to do. You usually listen when he speaks, but your mind is off somewhere else. 

Your hand was tapping at the table and you were sure you probably looked like you were daydreaming because a hand was placed on yours. Your focus was brought back to Gaster and he looked fairly concerned. 

“Are you alright my dear? You look as if you are off in your own world again…” 

You blink and laugh a bit, flipping your hand over to squeeze his. “Yeah. Sorry, just. Thinking. About the riots that broke out a few towns over.” You look down at your hand and sigh. 

“You know they were put down safely without any major injuries.” 

“Yeah I know, but god. What if one breaks out here. They keep happening and they keep getting worse. My brother keeps saying it’s fine. But stars above I’m so worried.” 

Gasters other hand reaches over the table and rests on your cheek, you lean into it a bit. 

“Everything will be fine. You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.” 

You laugh a bit. God, what did you do to deserve such a good friend? “I know. And I would never let anything happen to you too.” 

Gaster removes his hand from your face after lifting some of your hair and letting it fall between his fingers. He squeezes your hand and suddenly there was screaming. A large boom and the wall breaks. Eyes wide you stand quickly and Gaster joins you. The two of you grabbing humans and monsters alike trying to get everyone out of the now burning building. The smoke was filling your nose.

Smoke.

Smoke…..

Smoke? 

The memory vanished and you look around and you could smell smoke, the similar scent of Grillby. You excitedly push out from the pillows only to see Spooks looking through the room. Oh…. Guess you weren’t with Grillby… Looks like Spooks was looking for you though. That weird memory was still in the front of your mind, but you squeaked to announce where you were.

“OH, THERE YOU ARE! STRETCH AND BLUE ARE HERE TO BRING YOU BACK TO THE MAIN HOUSE. IF ONLY YOU COULD HAVE STAYED LONGER….” ow. Your heart. He looked sad. He lifted you up and it seems his fear is gone because he smooches the top of your head. Then down the stairs you go and you’re in the hands of Stars not too long after. 

Well. 

That adventure could have been a lot worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's gaster again! lol that memory was gonna be different, but hey that one was nice too.  
> Also I have a new poll! I've had some suggestions so, you can vote for if the other grillby's should be added to the roster (either with or without gasters too, thought id give it as an option as well) You can vote [HERE](https://www.strawpoll.me/16911711)
> 
> As aways you can [Follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) if you want me to see anything or let me know about anything either @me, tag it acrasm, send me a message or submit somethin. You can even ask me questions about any of my fics  
> Till next time!!!!


	17. Spiky Shit has his day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weird Hiatus almost over, but I stress wrote this. So enjoy!

Okay, you really. Really. REALLY. Hate how everyone just brings you wherever they please. You miss the days where you would just hang out with Grillby and run around his bar. Lately, you’ve just been spending time with Papyrus or Stars. Puzzles, cooking, so much being dragged around with both of them. It was exhausting. Just the night before Stars brought you out on a night run, you don’t know WHY, but he did…. You think it's dumb that he’s called blue though. So you’re going to continue to call him Stars. You’re kind of tempted to call Papyrus something else too. 

Anyways, you spent the last few days between Papyrus and Stars after the little adventuring incident. If you weren’t with one of them, you were with the other. But today seemed a bit different. Papyrus was up earlier than usual and he was usually up very early. His rummaging around woke you up from a dreamless sleep. You rub your face with your paws and watch as he practically destroys his closet looking for something. You can hear him mumbling that he can’t find something and that he needs it right now. You jump out of the carrier and onto Papyrus’s bed. You sit down and watch his little freakout. A few shirts get thrown and you’re a bit surprised. He always seemed so organized. Yet here he is, freaking out.

You hear a very loud ‘Nyeh’ and something you haven’t seen before is pulled out. Wait. No. You have. 

It’s a nametag. 

You’ve seen Grillby tag one on himself whenever humans you do not recognize walk into his bar and grill. 

You wonder why Papyrus needs a nametag. Unless he works too? Well… That makes sense that he works. You’re pretty sure that all the skeletons work, but if Papyrus is leaving for work where are you going to be staying? I mean you probably could just hang out in his room until he comes back, run around. Chew on some things. Stare out the window like a sad lil rat. 

Papyrus is then a flurry of bones. You can hear little clicks as he moves pretty fast. He seems to be rushing to get dressed and once done he pinned the nametag on his shirt. Turning around you see some words on his shirt. “Southpoint Puzzles and Toys” Under that was a drawing of a stuffed rabbit and a half-finished crossword. Oh! A toy store! You’re guessing that Papyrus works at a toy store. But. That means that you can’t sneak in with him. Can you? There’s no food involved so it shouldn’t be like. Any health code violations. 

 

Papyrus turns around again and notices you sitting out on his bed. He looks slightly surprised that you are up and on his bed instead of in your box or trying to climb up his Fibula like you did the other day. Which ended up with you being kicked off and going flying across the living room landing directly into Fluffy’s eye socket. It felt really weird in there and it took you a good bit of time to finally get out without Fluffy’s hand grabbing any soft parts of you. 

“AHH! LITTLE RAT! I DID NOT MEAN TO WAKE YOU UP. I JUST COULDN’T FIND MY NAMETAG AND I NEED IT OR NO ONE WILL KNOW MY NAME AT WORK!” You scratch behind your ears to lessen the slight ringing in your ears. You know he knows what an inside voice is and you’ve heard it, but he’s still using that loud voice and it hurts your ears.

“WHICH REMINDS ME! I AM GOING TO WORK AND BLUE HAS TO WORK TODAY AS WELL SO… I’LL LEAVE YOU SOME FOOD AND YOU CAN PLAY WITH MY ACTION FIGURES WHILE WE ARE AWAY.” Papyrus pets the top of your head with two fingers and motions to a bowl of food near the action figures and then he’s out the door. 

Well, guess you have a day to yourself? No Stars. No Papyrus. You haven’t been alone like this since you were at Spooks and Terrors place. You liked being alone, you think. But with that voice that’s been following you and that feeling of being watched since you stepped foot, or paw? Whatever, since you entered the other two skeletons home you’ve had a weird feeling someone has been watching you since then. Lately, you swear that if you were too far from Stars or Papyrus that the thing watching you is right behind you. You shake your head and walk around Papyrus bed finding a nice comfy spot to drag blankets around yourself and you curl on up. It is still pretty early and you’re still pretty tired. So you’re just gonna go back to sleep. 

A large crashing noise, yelling, and then silence. You jolt awake when you heard the crashing, froze at the yelling and now you’re looking around during the silence. You’re confused and a bit worried. 

The door suddenly slams open and you run to hide. Only when you tried to hide you kind of just ran into Papyrus’s pillow because you were keeping your eyes on the door, only to end up bouncing back a bit at the impact. Before you could even run again something wrapped tightly around your body. Squeezing slightly to the point where you let out a pained squeak. You struggle and squirm trying to get out of the hold you were in. You somehow squirmed enough that you could see who was holding you.

It’s Spiky Shit.

His hand squeezes you slightly and his mouth somehow turns into a very smug grin. You aren’t sure how exactly a skeleton can smirk, but the way he was looking at you, you could see one. Fear bubbled up inside you with the way he was looking at you. The only light was coming in through the window covered in the soft red curtains. The shadows over Spiky Shit’s face make the glowing red eyes and the scars along his left eye stand out even more. 

Oh shiiiiiiiit.

“WELL WELL WELL. NO ONE IS HOME AND IT’S JUST US. THE VERMIN IS ALL ALONE NOW. PERFECT!” 

You squirmed more in his hold. Out of every skeleton you’ve met, something about Spiky Shit just screams danger. Unlike Spooks who looked scary but had an aura that he wouldn’t hurt you, Spiky Shit was smothered. He screamed danger. You whip your tail around and scratch at his gloved hand. You even bite at the glove! But that just makes him laugh? 

What is it with these tall boys with distinct laughs? 

“FOOLISH VERMIN, YOU CAN’T ESCAPE THE TERRIBLE EDGE. I NEED YOU FOR SOMETHING SO THERE IS NO WAY OUT!” His hold on you tightens again and you let out another squeak. He strides out of Papyrus’s room and you blink at the change in lighting. He goes down the stairs and starts to head to the back door. You fear that he might be bringing you back to that little cabin full of puzzles. You sort of think those traps you saw littering the outside and that one desk is most likely his. 

To your surprise, he sits down on the couch you hid under a few days ago. On the tv was some menu for something. Ratatouille? Wait isn’t that the word that Papyrus mentioned your first official night here? It was a movie? Huh. 

Spiky shit does not let up on his hold of you but he uses that weird rectangle thing that controls the tv and the screen starts to play the movie. You were moved up quickly and out of habit, you wrap your tail around his wrist so you don’t fall.

“LOOK ITS YOU!” … What. On the screen was some rat. Wait. A rat? Now it makes sense why Papyrus mentioned this movie and oh! The rat’s name is Remy. Ah. Now it makes sense.

But you are still extremely on edge.

You though Spiky Shit was gonna throw you out, test you with his traps. Or worse, kill you. But here you are, wrapped up in his fingers, as he watches some moving picture, that after a full ten minutes of trying to think of the word and a splitting headache, you remembered that it is called a movie. 

Spiky Shit keeps commenting on the movie and keeps making sure you watch whenever the characters on screen do a rat thing. This feels. Out of character? But at the same time… kind of cute. Like a bad boy secretly liking all the fluffy things in life but has to keep up appearances. You wonder if maybe you’ve been reading Spiky Shit wrong all along. You might have. After all, you thought Snas was a really cool skeleton but is secretly a big meanie. 

At some point the movie had ended and some movie that had people in weird death traps was played next. You guess he just wanted you to watch that movie and decided to change it to something that matched his persona. Spiky Shit seemed very intent on looking at the traps and would explain to you how they would work and if they would be good traps and devices or not. 

You’ve decided that you do not understand this skeleton at all. 

As the movie marathon continues Spiky Shit has slowly stopped gripping you so hard and you were able to jump down onto the couch. You weren’t comfortable sitting on his lap, especially since he still kind of scared you, but you were not going to run away. Who knows what he would do if he caught you. Your tail flicks a bit at the thought. 

You weren’t too interested in the movie so you sniff around the couch, finding a very cold and very old fry under one of the throw pillows. Your face scrunches up and you decide to just. Lay down next to Spiky Shit. You were just getting comfortable when a hand scoops you up again. Letting out a very angry squeak you bite down on the offending hand. 

“YOU ARE QUIET THE VIROUCOUS VERMIN. I DO NOT SEE WHY SANS WARNED ME TO STAY AWAY FROM YOU.” Snas told him what? 

“I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE EDGE, EX SECOND IN COMMAND IN THE ROYAL GUARD AND EVERYONE FEARED ME. NO INSIGNIFICANT RAT COULD HURT ME. YOUR BITES DON’T EVEN LEAVE A DENT IN MY BONES.”

Okay. Ouch. You were just starting to slowly be okay around this guy. 

Spiky Shit shifts so that he is now laying down on the couch. His skull propped up on the armrest where his arm is behind his skull. His other hand is still holding onto you. That is until he suddenly drops you on his chest. You were worried you might slip a paw or two between his ribs but instead land on something more soft than hard. Well no, it’s still fairly hard, but you aren’t sinking. Your tail wags a bit and your ears move a bit. You try to figure out how that it is possible. You even did a little hop and nothing gives. 

Spiky shit seems to have been watching your confusion. A little “nyah ha ha” escapes between his fangs and he says magic and turns his head to face the tv. You guess he wanted to lay down and you were in the way. 

You still don’t know why he took you out of Papyrus’s room and why it mattered that no one else was home. Maybe he wanted a movie watching partner? Who knows. 

About four hours later the current movie ended and Spiky Shit hasn’t went to find another one to watch, usually by the credits he’s searching for another movie. Lifting your head you notice his sockets were closed and his chest was rising and falling slowly. Oh, guess skeletons breath. 

But if he’s asleep you can leave. But where would you go? Back to Papyrus’s room? Probably. Until.

A very interesting thought went through your mind.  
A very interesting idea indeed. 

You walk down Spiky Shit’s chest until you reached the part where you’re pretty sure his ribs end. This can go two different ways. You jump and land on more solid stuff and wakes him up. Or you jump and land on the couch and his shirt sinks more. Which you’re expecting because crop top was showing off his spine last time you saw him.

You take the leap of faith.

Poof! The shirt flattens at your weight. Nice! Now to initiate part 2. You scurry down and then lift the end of the shirt up with your paws and look into the deep abyss of Spiky Shit’s chest cavity. It was dark. You take the chance and you push your way under the shirt and carefully stand in front of his ribcage. You’re pretty sure what you’re doing is an invasion of privacy or something. But you’re a rat and you were curious. And Spiky Shit never cared about your feelings! 

It feels wrong but, you step in between the floating ribs and carefully not step onto the false ribs. There was a strange pressure that was being given off. You felt if you were being pushed down. The pressure of the darkness is suffocating you. Which then leads to you stepping onto transverse process and then onto the body of his spinal cord. 

You hear Spiky Shit yell and he sits up. Which in turn you grab onto his ribs so you don’t fall out. Suddenly the air around you is moving and you hear Spiky Shit yelling.

“GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!!!” A hand is reaching into his ribs, but your flight-or-fight response kicks in and you climb further up his ribs. Suddenly there was light and Spiky shit was throwing his shirt off, he is trying to grab you. 

“GET OUT YOU FILTHY THING.” He is growling and you keep avoiding his hands. That’s when the front door opens and Spiky Shit freezes, hand half up his ribs and you gripping onto his true ribs that hang near his clavicle.

You’re both frozen. 

At the entrance, Snas was staring at the two of you. Eyelights out and the bag he was carrying suddenly drops to the floor. Its contents spilling out. 

Oh god you were. So dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol I had fun writing the interaction between Rat and Spiky Shit (Edge). I asked the discord server for a skeleton to walk in on them and I gave no context lol. (Also sorry for the bone names. I was a premed student and like... it happens)
> 
> Also have the poll where you can vote for if gaster, grillby, both, or neither are gonna join the harem. The poll will stay open until Grillby comes back. You can vote [HERE](https://www.strawpoll.me/16911711)
> 
> As always you can [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/) and I've created a discord as well for both my fics, [you can find it here](https://discord.gg/8wpvVAU)


	18. Confrontation with Snas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my b for vanishing. started a new fic >>

It felt like you were caught making out with someone you shouldn’t be with. A distant memory crosses your mind. Sitting on the couch close to someone familiar. Hands on hips, thumb running across someone’s cheek. Lips pressed to each other as if the world may end and it was the last thing the two of you would ever do. And then a door opening and your brother walking in on you two. The sudden embarrassment and heat rising up your cheeks. You had been caught and you knew that your brother approved of your choices but will bring up the moment again and again whenever the three of you are together. You can’t remember the face of who you were kissing, but it made your chest tighten up and your mouth taste of ash and longing that you do not understand. 

You couldn’t dwell on the weird burst of memory because you’re suddenly being floated out of Spiky’s rib cage. Your claws scrape against the bare bones and your paws tingle from the sudden shock of familiarity. You can feel Spiky freeze up at the feeling of your small claws. You squirmed at the feeling of whatever was holding you. It was familiar, like the feeling when you tried to run away from the skeletons and got caught. A dark blue light engulfs you and you slowly float out and across the room to the main door. Snas hand is outstretched and his eyelights were out. The light squeezing down on you lightly and you can feel the fear and embarrassment rising to the surface. How can a smile look so menacing. 

“mind telling me what you’re doing there squeakers?” 

The air around you felt thick and you couldn’t stop squirming. The pressure is too much for you. If you were larger and in your real body you would be able to handle it. But in such a small fragile body it was terrifying. You couldn’t breathe. 

And suddenly there is blood.

Your blood. 

Too much blood.

A loud scream.

One of those large metal wheeled contraptions squealing and someone saying some colorful words 

Hands grabbing your limp body. It’s going cold. Too cold.

Someone is crying, telling you that you will be okay.

You don’t want to die.

It’s too soon. 

Too soon. 

You haven’t finished. 

You haven’t fo-

And suddenly the memory is gone and you’re still in Snas’s hold. Two memories in the span of a few minutes must have been a record for you. Snas has some look of regret and you wonder why. That is till you notice that you had stopped moving and making noise, you were almost limp in the hold. You might have scared him and he may have thought he killed you.

You start to squirm in his hold again. Fighting against the force around you. That seems to make the weird light around you tighten. You didn’t like being bound and restricted. You will not allow anyone to bind you. You had enough of that during your time in the dungeons for a lifetime. Maybe more. You squeak loudly. Body twisting and turning in painful ways. Trying to escape. 

Then the pressure is gone and instead a familiar hand is wrapped around your midsection. You scratch and try to nip at the fingers. Your tail whipping violently and hitting something much harder than flesh. You knew it was Snas who had you in his hold, but the sudden fear was spiking. You won’t be held hostage. Not again! Never again! 

“whoa there. acting like a crazed animal. might wanna bone it down a notch.” Snas laughs at whatever he said, but you were not having it. You kept squirming and nipping. He taps your head with his other hand and you go to bite that finger. Your teeth hurt when it meets the bone, but just like with Spiky, a weird hum was felt through it. 

You didn’t like it. So you let go.

“I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL. YOU DID NOT NEED TO HELP ME.” The voice of Spiky was loud and you flinched at the venom that laced it. You don’t know why it scared you so much. 

“aw come on edge. having something up in your ribs that move like that can’t have been comfortable. Could almost say.” 

“SANS DON’T YOU DARE.” 

“it tickled your ribs.” 

There was silence that followed. Even you stopped squirming to give him a squinty eye look. Both you and Edge seemed to have agreed that what Snas said was terrible. 

“wow tough crowd.” 

“UG YOU’RE JUST AS BAD AS RED.” Spiky shit turns and you hear a weird click and he heads over to the couch. Grabbing the shirt he had thrown off and puts it back on. Turning back to Snas with the nastiest look you have ever seen on a skeleton. “YOUR BROTHER TOLD A FEW OF US THAT YOU, MY IDIOT BROTHER AND THAT CREAMSICLE WERE NOT ALLOWED ALONE WITH THAT VERMIN.” 

Oh! Spiky shit!!!! Was he going to save you? You’d rather be around him than Snas if you’re honest. 

“BUT BECAUSE THAT FILTHY THING… VIOLATED ME.” Oh no… “AND I ONLY AGREED TO YOUR BROTHERS REQUEST OUT OF THE SMALL GOODNESS IN MY HEART. YOU MAY TAKE THAT FILTHY THING AND DO… WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO WITH THOSE THINGS.” 

And you were just starting to like him. Rude.

“well, thanks edge. just made my day rat much better. but I mouse ask a question. what exactly did pap tell you?” 

The air suddenly crackled with an odd sensation. One you vaguely remember being dangerous. 

“NOTHING THAT CONCERNS YOU CLASSIC. NOW IF YOU EXCUSE ME. I MUST GO.” And Spiky just walks away and up the stairs. There is some banging and the sound of a door slamming, then he comes back down the stairs, pushes past Snas and out the front door. Carefully stepping over the stuff Snas had dropped on the ground. Then he was gone.

Leaving you and Snas all alone. 

You and the skeleton you thought was your friend, but he had only to turn around and was so mean to you. To allow fluffy to hurt you like that. The one who had turned so cold. 

You felt the fear rising again in you, but you will persevere. 

“so it’s just us huh. guess its time you and i have a soul to soul talk. i’m sure you’re curious about what happened last time you were here and i’m curious as to what you did to edge.” He sighs and his hold on you loosens a bit, he is looking down at you and the malice you felt before is gone and all that is left is a strong emotion of regret and loneliness. You really didn’t like this. Something nagging at the back of your mind is telling you that this skeleton was a lot more dangerous than what he has shown you so far.

You look up to Snas again and see that his smile has dropped a bit, at least you think it has. You were pretty good at reading body language, but maybe that was just with Grillby.

Fear and worry fill you. 

Snas still has his hold around you as he turns to go back outside, you would assume the talk would take place in his room, yet he is going to the front door. Yet when he turns the corner you’re suddenly in a blank inky space. A weird garbled voice that sounds all too familiar calls out from the darkness.

A white hand is reaching for you. It is blurry, but you can make out a distinct hole in the palm, it’s reaching, stretching, grasping. But just as you started to understand what it was saying it was over. You were now in a very messy room. You blink away the dark rings and yup. A very messy room. 

A treadmill sits in the middle of the room, which is fairly weird. You hear some whooshing noises and assume it’s an open window. Only to see. A small tornado of trash? How. Is that even possible? You kind of tack magic onto that. Probably the only explanation that you can think of. The bed was a bare mattress with blankets thrown about. In the corner, you can see some sort of dresser. Otherwise, the room was just a mess but at the same time seemed so bare. Like whoever was living in the room didn’t even make it their own, just barely lived in there. 

“well squeakers welcome to my room.” He makes a wide gesture to his room and then plops himself down on the mattress, his fingers wrapped around you let go and he sets you down on the bed. As you turn around to confront this skeleton he is laying back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Silence falls between you two. Your nerves go haywire again. 

Was he luring you into a sense of security? Was he waiting for you to talk? You can’t talk?? Right? Yeah. No, you can’t talk. 

Time ticks on and you eventually get curious. Carefully you walk over to Snas. Sniffing his hand and then pushing your head under it. There was a small amount of space that you can squeeze under. Maybe this would bring it back to whatever he wanted to talk about. The hand starts to wrap around you and you quickly run away. A soft snort like sound is heard from above and looking up you notice Snas is now sitting up. He crosses his legs and stares down at you. You scurry away to the other end of the bed and sit there, looking up at him.

“alright _____ lets talk.”

You tilt your head. You can’t talk, that has already been established. But how did he know your name? Wait. Right. Grillby. 

“still not squeaking? jeez, squeakers really holding tight on the rat shtick. Would ask if a cat got your tongue, but i think you’d probably wouldn't be here if that was the case.” 

Snas runs a hand across his head and scratches at the base of his skull. It makes an odd noise that makes your ears hurt a bit. 

“guess it’s going to be a onesided conversation. first off, bet you’re really curious about what red, stretch and i did. the three of us had some. interesting interactions with a rat before. one that can understand us, but could talk. we assumed it was because of magic, or some lost monster that somehow survived on the surface, but the things they said….” 

Snas’s eyelights go out and you can sense the tension in the room filled again. Your fur starts to rise and your back arching as a cat would. Snas seems to have picked up on it and quietly chuckled. 

“well don’t worry about it kiddo. You probably are just an abnormal rat that was experimented on with magic and somehow became sentient. red thinks you’re the same rat, but he also said he saw that rat die before the merge so who knows. i’m not making excuses for what he did, but if it means anything. sorry, we scared you that night, we’ve had some bad times with a rat before.” 

You still don’t trust Snas, but. You guess he gets some points for apologizing and sort of explaining why the three of them cornered you like a wild animal and asked those questions. In fact, thinking back, those questions made hardly any sense. How could a rat hurt a skeleton? They never reacted when you bit them….

After that little conversation, he asked about why you were up in Edge’s ribcage, you like to think Spiky works better than Edge, but you don’t know how to answer that since, once again, you can’t TALK. 

At least you couldn’t talk until what happened later that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wingdings font does not show up on ao3 and i spent an hour trying to figure it out so i just.... text box. If you wanna know what it says ;) you'll just have to wait and see. (someone translated it right away so if you're curious its like the first comment.)
> 
> Also have the poll where you can vote for if gaster, grillby, both, or neither are gonna join the harem. The poll will stay open until Grillby comes back. You can vote [HERE](https://www.strawpoll.me/16911711)
> 
>  
> 
> [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/)  
> [join the discord here](https://discord.gg/8wpvVAU)


	19. Science and stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. School has been kicking my ass and i had trouble with this chapter! I also didnt reread this so any major issues, lmk
> 
> And for those who are worried you can skip this chapter! I will leave a tiny summary at the bottom!

Afternoon bled into night and the sky was a blossom of colors, but it’s not like you could see it inside, you were to busy waiting for your current “keeper” which from what Snas had told you he’d be home soon. Which lo and behold Papyrus had came home about ten minutes after that was said and looking strangely both energetic and exhausted. You had been returned to his room before he came home. After all, you were not supposed to be around Snas. Though you kind of wanna call Papyrus something else, like Skeletouille, chef, noodle, papaya, or maybe cheese. But you will come up with a better nickname another time. Right now Papyrus is just gushing to you about his job. Talking about all the kids who get so excited to see him work and ask for help on the puzzles he has made for the toy company. 

He must really like his job. It was kind of cute.

After the gushing he fed you and the two of you went through what you think is his nightly routine is. He does the same thing every night without a single pause so you’re pretty sure it’s a routine. He even added you! Mostly just letting you lay on top of his skull. Sometimes you’re facing the other way and your tail catches in his eye socket. It always gave you a jolt since it was so cold compared to the humming of his skin, er bones? Skull. Whatever.

At 10 o’clock exactly Papyrus gets into bed after loudly saying “MWAH” when he presses his teeth against your head. He started adding that part after the first night you were here. 

“GOOD NIGHT LITTLE FRIEND. SEE YOU TOMORROW!” Papyrus’s voice rung out and then the lights went out. Sometimes you feel like there was something missing. Like a bedtime story? 

For some reason every night since you came here everything just felt wrong when the lights went out and silence filled the home. Like it was unnatural. Something felt like it was missing. Someone maybe? No. 

God everything was so confusing. You hated it. 

You stretch your paws in front of you and flopped over and looked at one of the walls in Papyrus’ room. Silence and darkness surrounding you. Like a soft blanket. A soft blanket that gives a child a false sense of safety when in the shadows outside of view sits a monster with sharp claws ready to tear into you. Ready to pounce when the child guard is down. You really disliked it. 

And it’s a good thing that you were so on edge because the darkness suddenly clouded your vision and the temperature dropped at an alarmingly fast rate. Your fur stuck up and you scrunched up on yourself. Your teeth were bared and you were ready to bite anything that came too close to you. The darkness soon vanished and you were blinded by the sudden light. You could hear a familiar voice and a voice of someone else. You can hear the two but you can’t see them since the light is still blinding you. 

You blink rapidly, trying to get your sight back. Sensing something coming near you your fur stick up even more and you make a weird noise you had no clue you could make. It sounded almost like a growl and a hiss mixed together. Not a pretty sound obviously. 

That’s when your vision came back. And that’s when you saw one of the skeletons you absolutely dislike. 

It was fucking Fluffy.

“whoa there you little shit. ain’t going to fucking hurt you.” 

The voice you only vaguely know spoke right after. “not yet at least.”

What. 

Hurt you? Oh no.

Oh hell no! 

You launch. Fluffy wasn’t expecting it. You jumped onto his chest and then scurry up his body. Gripping onto the weird lab coat he was wearing over his regular jacket? Who does that?

Anyways you avoid his hands and get up to his face, ready to jump into his eye socket to cause him incredible discomfort and safety for yourself. Safety being he won’t try and grab you out because last time he did when you were in there you bit his hand so hard you heard a crunch. But before you could even do that a loud buzzing hit your ears and you were enveloped in some sort of magic. 

This magic made your ears hurt. You never were able to hear magic like this before, so why now? It’s hurting your head. 

“now lil one you really shouldn’t be doing anything like that. don’t need more injuries than necessary.” 

You were set back down onto the cold table. You would have ran again if it were not for the fact you were surrounded by large plastic like walls around said table. Kind of like a. Fish tank. 

You’re in a fish tank. 

“we should wait for sans.”

“nah apparently vanilla and the lil fucker already had a soul to soul chat. said we had the go-ahead to do this shit.” Fluffy was speaking as he was pulling some stuff out. Like vials and syringes. Some strange substances in all different colors. That. Did not look good.

“we are not going to need all of that.” The voice of the other skeleton said, grabbing some of the liquid and putting them away. You glare a bit at the skeleton trying to figure out who they were.

That’s when it hit you. It was Fluffy and Mug. The two edgy skeletons. Mug is the one who you recently saw with the two gold teeth, kinda tall and slim like papyrus, but still gave off the similar air that ugly orange has. You don’t think this is going to end well for you. God do you miss Grillby. Why does all this weird stuff have to happen to you? 

The buzzing is back and you rub at your ears as you’re floated out of the tank and set down on another table. A strap wrapped around your midsection. You struggle against it, the feeling of the leather rubbing against you was very uncomfortable. You wanted out. You squeak loudly and make that spooky noise again. Fluffy snorting at the noise and shaking his head. You can’t see much of what was going on behind you but Fluffy pets your head and tells you not to worry. 

You feel a pinch in your back leg and you squeak loudly. Trying to thrash in the hold. Fluffy is looking down at you. The light behind him making him look incredibly menacing. The little lights in his eyes are small and his smile wide. The gold of his tooth shining a bit.

“well sweetheart. think you can speak for us?” You squeak in response. What are these two doing? You want to yell, to fight back. This is wrong! What are they doing to you?

You can hear some scribbling and a sigh. Fluffy looks up from you and to Mug. You hear a strange language. One that you recognize from the voice when Snas dragged you into another room earlier. It makes your head swim and strange flashes of people pop up. The buzzing growing louder again. 

In your distracted state Mug poked you a few more times, each time asking you to speak. But each time you just squeak. 

It went like that for an hour before Fluffy let out an angry sigh and dropped into a chair.

“this is getting us nowhere. they aren’t speaking and i still can’t pull their soul out. is vanilla was here i bet he could just force it out and then we can know the truth. can’t even do a check on them without it being blank.” Fluffy glares at you and you hear a chair roll and Mug is sitting beside Fluffy. 

“yeah it isn’t doing anything. but m’lord gave me instructions to interrogate the rat… but i can’t without seeing their soul or being able to understand them.” 

“you two don’t have any connections to _____ unlike boss and i. still it’s weird this rat has their name but can’t speak like they could.” 

They kept talking after that which you tuned out. You just. Kept struggling against the binding. This was getting annoying. You squeak angrily and kept trying to get free. You hated being bound, it brought up a sense of dread. Plus Mug gave you a bunch of shots with strange liquids and you don’t know why and you don’t want to know what he did, but right now it’s starting to hurt. Your vision was starting to go blurry and your head was hurting a lot. 

You can hear something whispering to you. And the fear inside you is growing. This isn’t right. Oh god it isn’t right. 

The sound of two chairs crashing and there was a sound of panic yelling. A popping noise and you can sense there was magic flowing through the air and it slowly vanishes as it moves to the other room. The yelling gets quieter but the buzzing gets louder and louder. 

Stop.

Stop it.

Stop the buzzing.

Stop the yelling.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. 

“STOP IT!” The sound stops and your headache is gone. You blink. Did. Did you say that? You look up and notice something in front of your eyes, lifting a paw you move the stuff away from your eyes. Is. Is that hair? Your hand grabs it and yes. It’s hair. 

You’re.

You’re human again. 

From the other room you hear Mug speak.“....they just spoke. the rat spoke.” 

“yeah you dumb mutt i have ears.” 

The two of them come back into the room and look at the table. You hear one of them curse and look around. 

“Uh. Down here…” you raise a hand and the two skeletons look at you. Mug looks highly uncomfortable and Fluffy. 

Well Fluffy. 

Fluffy looked absolutely pissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay quick summary, mug and fluffy experiment on the reader and somehow they become human....  
>  hehe. fluffy is pissed though. 
> 
> But uh,,, i wont be updating side character for awhile. rn i want to focus on school and if i have time i'll be updating this fic. SC will be on hiatus for at least another month, but this fic will hopefully be updated again soon ^^ 
> 
> Also have i still have the poll where you can vote for if gaster, grillby, both, or neither are gonna join the harem. The poll will stay open until Grillby comes back. You can vote [HERE](https://www.strawpoll.me/16911711)
> 
> [follow my tumblr here](https://insert-this-fire.tumblr.com/)  
> [join the discord here](https://discord.gg/8wpvVAU)


End file.
